Thanks to my team that helps me with this fanfic of Max, Nick and Jake. I also want to say I'm sorry that I didn't post this before, it was ready for about a month but I was busy.
Warnings: Parental abuse, more towards emotional abuse and attempted emotional abuse than physical abuse though Nick has warned me that it came off to him as either physical or sexual abuse. So it depends on how you look at it.
We now have Temari in this fanfic! I didn't know how I was going to include her but quite a lot of fanfics I read she doesn't feature that much so obviously she had to be added in.
"YOU'RE LATE!" rang across the training ground as his cute little students shouted the words, it was like music to his ears.
"Mah, mah, you see there was a group of travellers from Moon Country that got lost on the way to their inn and couldn't find their way so I helped them to their inn only to find out that they were missing a member of their group who ventured into the forest around here. I looked for her in the forest where a pack of wild wolves had gotten her cornered so I bravely took them down and rescued the poor maiden from certain death and brought her back to her group where she asked me if she could make me miso for breakfast for the rest of her life. How could I refuse?" That may or may have not been a plot to an Icha Icha knock off. The look on his little genins' faces was worth it though. Deadpan all across the board.
"THAT'S A LIE! EVEN IF IT WAS TRUE THEN IT WOULDN'T TAKE YOU THREE HOURS TO GET HERE!" shouted Sakura, she had a very big set of lungs on her. She'd be a good distraction.
"I'm not three hours late." His cute little genin team looked confused, it was like teaching a puppy not to chew on the table legs. Too bad Pakkun said not to bring anymore pups into the group.
Sakura looked at the position of the sun then back to him.
"You told us to meet you at 9am since you were giving us a sleep in. It's noon, that's three hours." He was so proud of her using her logic like this, if she retires then she would definitely have a seat on the council. With some physical or ninjutsu power behind her not many would argue against her in the council.
"I'm two hours and fifty minutes late."
"HOW'S THAT ANY BETTER?"
"It's not three hours, so your facts are wrong." Sakura made a face. She better make sure to keep note of the facts especially if she encounters a Nara on the council that argues against her. He was really helping her future and if her shouting and screaming made Sasuke pull faces ever so slightly well, it was a minor benefit.
"Kakashi-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, do you have a mission for us? Like another C ranked? Or rescuing a princess from bandits?" Naruto looked so eager, Kakashi had to resist petting him on the head and giving him ramen as a treat.
"Nothing like that, we might get a D ranked later but for now I'd like to confirm that you all can reach the top of these trees then we'll do other chakra exercises."
"What's there to confirm?" asked Sasuke, back to being broody. Not healthy that, Kakashi would know.
"Well the trees that you trained on most likely had minimal chakra within them."
"Trees have chakra?"
Smack! Naruto whined as he rubbed his head from where Sakura had smacked him upside the head, perhaps a bit more gentle than usual. That's an interesting development. Personally he was a bit tempted to do that as well, didn't Naruto learn anything from the academy?
"All living things have chakra, right Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura glanced over towards him as if she needed to confirm what he just said. Kakashi just nodded in reply. She'll need to be trained out of that, she shouldn't need the encouragement. For now it was okay and cute if not a little scary but later it would be a liability.
His dogs would have a field day with his students and it would be so cute to have his dogs and students together, maybe he needed a camera to blackmail them with later on in life.
"So the trees here should have more chakra?" asked Sakura. Sasuke might be his favourite source of humour and Naruto a constant reminder of everything that he's done wrong in his life but Sakura, Sakura was his favourite due to her potential. So much potential to be murder happy and do things in life, and live too. Living is important to having a future.
"The trees in and around Konoha have quite a fair bit of chakra within them due to the first Hokage, which makes them harder to walk on since they are bound to try and kick back if you lose concentration for even a bit, this is called Hashirama's Vengeance. This makes it harder for foreign ninja to try and tree walk around Konoha. We make older and important buildings out of the wood from these trees in case of invasions. It might be a small difference but an important one when the wood rebounds on you and you're fighting on a wall or tree."
"So...it's difficult to walk on these trees?" asked Sakura, he send her a warm one eyed smile towards her.
"Yes but also helps for fine chakra control. This is why we have some of the best mednin in the world."
"So why don't foreign ninja just take a few of the seeds from Konoha?" asked Sasuke, suddenly interested in trees. Predictable, probably wants to use them to train. Kakashi really did need to slip him some Icha Icha at some point so he could learn things like team bonding and relationships.
"Well, they just don't grow outside of Konoha and her forests. Nobody can figure out why, I mean we had a whole team of botanists and chakra sensors to try and figure out why back a few years ago, and as far as anyone can tell it's simply because Hashirama-sama."
"Because Hashirama-sama?" asked Sasuke dubiously, Kakashi nodded seriously in return and his team all looked so unconvinced. It's a pity they thought that it was a lie. The second Hokage had a whole diary dedicated to the stupid things his brother did that simply ended up saying 'because Nii-sama', which later became the saying 'because Hashirama-sama' when dealing with anything odd in Konoha.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Go walk on these trees." ordered Kakashi, privately he was hoping that Sakura would show up the boys again.
"Ha! I bet I could do this faster than you can, bastard!" shouted Naruto as he shot off to the nearest tree and stepping onto it like it was the simplest thing in the world.
There was a large boom that triggered his fight or flight senses making him pull out a kunai and have his sharingan out within milliseconds. It was enough to capture and register the fact that Naruto went flying across the field, his face in shock, before he jumped to capture his wayward student just before he hit another tree.
He took stock of his other students, Sakura was shaking a bit while Sasuke had completely froze, while he held a shaken up Naruto in his arms. There didn't seem to be an attack, his eyes looking towards everything, though no doubt that the noise would have attracted other ninja to their area.
Safe. It wasn't an attack. Just a bad reaction.
Kakashi carefully placed Naruto back on the ground, patting him off of invisible dust and dirt. Faintly he remembered to lower his headband back down again and to put away his kunai.
"Right! So as Naruto-kun just demonstrated these trees don't like it when you put in too much chakra into each step, if you put in too much chakra at any given time this will happen." If Kakashi lied about that last part who was going to tell him off? He hadn't seen a reaction like that from the trees ever.
Was it because they sensed he had the Kyuubi or was it because he put way too much chakra into his foot? Kakashi tried not to panic. If it was the former then it will be unlikely that he would be able to tree walk within or around Konoha however if it was the later then it wouldn't be too bad and would help him with his chakra control.
The only way to find out would be to have Naruto to keep doing it but that could mean that Naruto will get seriously hurt in a way that said the Hokage will have to step in and question why and he didn't want any of his students taken away from him, he just got them.
This will probably mean he was on Naruto catching duty until they find out the cause.
His students looked terrified at the thought of having to walk on these trees.
"It's fine, think of it as another trial that all Konoha ninja need to go through. It's an untold rite of passage." They didn't look any more convinced so he walked up the tree that Naruto tried, there wasn't even a mark of Naruto's shoes in the tree where normal trees would have from too much chakra, and walked up the tree slowly to show them it was fine. They looked a bit more convinced after that.
Good old physical reassurance. He'll have to train them out of that soon.
From about fifty metres away Kakashi could feel the insistent chakra flares of ANBU asking for his status and whether or not it was an attack. It was a bit of a pain trying to do chakra flares on the actual trees while not making it noticeable to his team but all ANBU had to be trained for it. The buildings that were made from the wood of these trees had a duller reaction and were far less likely to kick back than the alive ones but they did make for excellent fire traps so that enemies couldn't have access to their documents.
Slowly Sasuke went towards a tree first but it's Sakura who actually walks up her tree, right next to Sasuke's tree. One step, two step, a faint wavering of doubt within her but she held steady and climbed up with little to no trouble. She even did a little cheer at the end and called Sasuke over to her before she realises how high she was and wilted a bit. He has such high hopes for her, and not just because she's at the top of a tree. So Wave Country wasn't a fluke; good.
Sasuke, of course, ignored her and tried walking up his tree. He hit half way before the tree kicked him back much more gently than it did to Naruto, the usual response from the trees. Speaking of which Kakashi had to make the tree kick him off so he could be able to reach Naruto in time because the cute little student that he is decided to walk up the tree again and got kicked off in his way again.
It was like playing fetch with the tree with Naruto as the ball. The things he does for his students.
"Sakura-chan, I've now got another chakra exercise for you if you would come down." Sakura look startled at being addressed but carefully got back down the tree again, she didn't know yet but walking slower downwards made people look weird and caused the blood cells to react to gravity while going faster might have a small blood rush at the bottom of the tree but you suffer less for it. She will learn in time that sometimes it is better to just jump into things or in her case just jump down from the tree.
Sasuke glared at her when she walked passed her that made her wilt even faster than the heights. He really should do something about that, he wanted at least one of his students on the council so he could blackmail them and it wasn't like Sasuke or Naruto were council material.
He watches as Naruto goes another round with the trees and it does seem like he is better at not being kicked back as much, in fact he now makes it three quarters of the way across the field now so it must be just how much chakra he puts into his steps. That was good. Very good in fact, it can be fixed by training him with these trees more.
Sakura waits patiently by his side as he watches his other students carefully and now just lets Naruto hit the ground instead of the trees where he was going to get hit and be seriously injured. He might have also become a human ball if he accidentally tried to land with his chakra against the tree.
"Okay, Sakura-chan, I want you to grab a few leaves from the trees here and keep them glued to your forehead with your chakra. The leaves might try and float away if you put too much chakra into them so if that happens get another leaf from the tree. It works best with fresh leaves and I want you to do it in the clearing over." Kakashi lowered his voice to just above a whisper so Sasuke couldn't listen in. Sasuke had a nasty habit of trying to learn more than he should be allowed to, not from him luckily but his records did mention him trying to sneak into the more forbidden parts of the public library to have a look at more ninjutsu.
Just so Sakura would be safe he sent a shadow clone after her as well, just to keep watch from the tree line and always out of sight. Best to not let his cute little students know that he liked them more than he showed otherwise he'd roll over for them and nobody wanted that.
Kakashi walked up another tree and stood there watching, he also took out his beloved Icha Icha Paradise book because it was going to be a long wait until both his boys got to the tops of their trees.
He was right, it took five hours of him playing fetch with Naruto and reading alternatively before Naruto slowly make his way up the tree while Sasuke got it in three hours however Sasuke looked winded and on the edge of chakra exhaustion while Naruto looked like he could go for another twenty rounds before he looked that winded.
Kakashi called over Sakura from where she was training, his clone had yet to disperse yet since he didn't gain any new memories, while his two male students gathered around him.
"Right, before I dismiss you, each morning until I say stop I want you to train using these trees before you meet up for the team meetings in the usual place. Sakura-chan you do the other chakra control as well since you have shown you can proficiently walk up these trees without trouble. Naruto-kun if you're able to I also want you to climb these trees after the team meetings where I'll supervise just in case you get that reaction again. Sasuke-kun, you do the morning training only. You're on the normal route for this type of training." Naruto grumbled while Sasuke click his tongue. There was no doubt the boy was going to try and sneak in more training.
"I also want to tell you that in two days time you'll all be doing different training. Sasuke-kun you're with Yūhi Kurenai-san from Team Eight. Sakura-chan you've got self-training since I believe that you're capable of training yourself and Naruto-kun you're going with another team as well."
"What-wait! Why are we getting separated?" asked Sakura as she scrambled to get answers.
"It's for training purposes, since not every team will stay the same and for different missions you'll get different people depending on what mission you'll be on. I wouldn't be surprised if other students from different teams get temporarily accepted into our own to see how well we work together," while this wasn't the actual reason of why they were being separated, it was a convenient excuse to use.
"Wait! What team will I be on then?" asked Naruto. As much as Kakashi didn't want to say the team because it was the mock mission if he didn't say a team then it would look suspicious to Sakura and Sasuke.
"A team found out about your...time in the marketplace and decided that they want to try you out as well, I think they've just lost a third team member so you'll fit in nicely," this time he was just lying plain out, why was it that when he told the truth his cute little genin don't believe him but when he was lying they do? What kind of survival instincts was that?
"Naruto-kun, you'll stay behind starting today since you still get kicked from the trees. Sasuke-kun go home and sleep off your minor chakra exhaustion. Sakura-chan, I want you to do the same." Sakura was slightly swaying on her feet and held it together. It made him feel like a job well done.
"But what about Naruto-kun?" asked Sakura, blinking blurrily and her eyes were almost unfocused, there were even leaves in her hair that she must have had missed. Small reserves but very good control, like most civilian background kunoichi. She has time to grow.
"Does Naruto-kun look like he has chakra exhaustion?" Kakashi even made a small gesture with his hand towards Naruto who was basically bouncing on his feet and looking around. Kakashi had obviously lost his attention.
Sakura shook her head before trying to get a half hearted date with Sasuke but yawned part way through it and just said goodbye to everyone afterwards. Sasuke looked like there was a god in the world.
"You know if you get chakra exhaustion, Sakura-chan might want to try and make you get better? Maybe even coming over to your house," Kakashi lazily said out aloud and from the almost horrified face that Sasuke pulled it was worth it but the excited face that Naruto made said that it wasn't worth it at all because tomorrow he was going to have a chakra exhausted Naruto instead.
Well, at least it was a good way to tell how much chakra he had.
Kakashi waited until he couldn't feel Sasuke or Sakura's chakra anymore before he paid his full attention on Naruto who was getting kicked back again and again from the trees but slowly getting higher on the trees. His natural reserves were far beyond genin or even chūnin level but that was probably to be expected from the legendary Uzumaki line. A true powerhouse. He'd be good for the front lines with Sasuke and Sakura as support.
"Naruto-kun," Naruto turned to face Kakashi and stayed on the tree for a few seconds before getting kicked, Kakashi waited until he had Naruto's full attention again, "I sent in a mission request to the Hokage about the mock mission that was proposed. He has accepted it and in two days Yamanaka-san and I will be taking care of your training for about a week before you go on the mock mission. I don't want you telling Sasuke-kun or Sakura-chan about this mission. If they ask then use the fake team that I mentioned as a cover,"
"Why can't I tell them?" whined Naruto, "They're my teammates! Teammates are meant to share things!" Kakashi nodded sagely, like he totally agreed with Naruto and while he was glad Naruto took in what he was saying he chose the wrong way to interpret it.
"That's true however sometimes missions call for the person doing them not to tell anyone around them even teammates. It's good practice in case you are chosen for such missions. We'll tell Sasuke-kun and Sakura-chan after the mock mission is done."
Kakashi knew that when you go on mock missions you can actually tell your teammates to let them know what field you were going to be specialising in if they hadn't figured out already however this was just easier to not let Sasuke and Sakura know until the mock mission had finished.
Knowing Sasuke he'd want to try and get a mock mission because Naruto had the mock mission and Sakura would want to do it as well because Sasuke was doing it and they all couldn't have mock missions because mock missions were a pain to set up since you had to have the teacher bring it up with two recommendations of jōnin or higher and the teacher couldn't be the one to suggest it either. One day Naruto will appreciate what it takes to get him a mock mission.
"Okay, but only until I've finished the mission, right?" Kakashi nodded and wondered if he should leave a clone at the training grounds while he could take it easy for a bit. It was probably easier if he did, that way he had actual time to plan what exactly he needed to do to get Naruto to the point where he needed to be. Hopefully the minor blackmail would be useful and Kakashi could get the final exam for Naruto that he wanted.
"Yes! I'm going to pass that mock mission! Then I can rub it in that bastard's face!" He really shouldn't be condoning Naruto's attitude but it was funny as hell watching the boy while he riled up everyone around him and it's not like he'll actually let anyone truly harm Naruto. He'd never forgive himself, might even be the point of no return.
"Okay, I want for you to try walking up the tree for another hour before I'll dismiss you." Naruto nodded and raced towards the tree that kept kicking him back. He even made it half way up the tree this time before it blasted him about half way across the clearing.
Kakashi sighed before creating an earth clone to handle Naruto as he leaned against a tree and watched Naruto practice, occasionally reading his favourite passages from Icha Icha Paradise. He got lost in the tale of Jiiro and Princess Tsuko's love story threatened by the villain Otsuki, a prince from a foreign land who wanted Princess Tsuko's kingdom for himself.
It was quite interesting for the characterisations although very poor naming skills considering Jiiro was Jiraiya and Princess Tsuko was Tsunade while Otsuki was Orochimaru. He could only hope that the sequel would have better naming skills. Though Kakashi did wonder if the raunchy sex scene on page one hundred and five was actually real though.
Looking up from his book after a while he checked the sky and his internal body clock, "Time's up, it's been an hour." Naruto nodded as he collapsed onto the ground in a boneless flop like his body wasn't able to stand anymore, he also looked winded as he grinned to the sky.
"I did well didn't I? Soon I'll pass that bastard running up these trees!" Kakashi hummed in response and listened to Naruto's vaguely coarse laugh echo around the clearing.
"Time to get up." Naruto whined before shakily lifting himself up with great effort, his jacket was dirty and there was dirt and leaves in his hair but he was grinning like a job well done. Students were cute and lucky for Kakashi he only had to raise them from the ages of twelve to sixteen so he didn't have to do anything but give them the kunai and the shuriken talk later on.
"You better get some rest for tomorrow and make sure you do the training in the morning as well." Kakashi was starting to feel like Orochimaru with all this nagging and wasn't that a terrifying thought to have? Maybe there was something in the water?
"I will! Bye, Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto as he started to run back home and waved to him. Kakashi lazily waved back, not too sure if Naruto could see him waving back. How did Naruto have so much energy?
Now he had blackmail to plan while not being called a traitor of the state. It was going to be fun.
She heard rumours that another one of her old classmates was going to a coastal town. She heard it was due to the low amount of work that he was finding. She even tried to make her father give more work to her ex-classmates whenever he came home but there wasn't enough.
They were getting long term missions thanks to archaeologists and historians up around where Rōran was and some border work where they didn't touch Rain or River but they were losing jobs fast and were forced to raise the price as well.
For a while they tried to do cheaper work but it didn't generate enough money to sustain the village so now the village was slowly dying and they couldn't do anything about it apart from what was going to happen. Had been for years. Her graduating class had been ten while Kankurō's had been eight.
Baki, her jōnin teacher knocked on her father's door, before entering. Vile was at the back of her throat and nerves littered her stomach. She was meant to be the reason they were going to get jobs back and she failed.
She failed.
The Kazekage, her father, looked at their group. He was deceptively casual behind his desk. There were no guards near him but there was traces of gold dust around. Her brother was trying to keep as far away from the jinchūriki as possible while looking like a cohesive unit while her other brother was staring into the distance, twitching ever so slightly. It was unnerving.
"Report."
Baki stepped up and it was better him than her, "It was a failure, the Daimyō's son didn't fall for Temari. The information that we had was wrong, apparently the Daimyō's son is more interested in older women than younger women. Despite that Temari did try to seduce him to the best of her ability and she tried to seduce the Daimyō's nephew as well but he didn't go for her either,"
There it was. The spoken words of her failure. She tried so hard to try and seduce one of the Daimyō's relatives and it didn't god damn work. It was the last chance and she blew it. She blew it sky high like a damn sand tornado travelling across the desert. Now they were going to go to war because of her.
And the worst thing about it was the nobles treated her like a non clan hick from a nomad community. That had really hurt her pride.
If only herself or Kankurō had inherited the Kazekage's kekkei genkai. Maybe the Daimyō would take their village more seriously if they had a proper heir rather than an unstable jinchūriki. Even a no name magnet user with mixed heritage would have been better.
"Very well. You may all leave. Temari, you stay," stated the Kazekage. He looked displeased but he always looked displeased nowadays. He was in charge of a failing village after all.
Crap. Kankurō gave her a distressed look and placed a hand on her shoulder while Baki gave her an apologetic glance before they walked away. Steeling herself she waited until the Kazekage was ready to talk. His room had the classic Suna windows that she'd known all her life, faintly curved. She wanted to do something, anything but she stopped herself at the last moment. She was a kunoichi of Suna, damnit, she was better trained than that.
"You don't have any excuses?" asked the Kazekage. He was slowly coming over to her. Was he going to kill her? Temari bit a part of her cheek. It wasn't even her fault that those stupid nobles didn't want her!
If the Kazekage really wanted to succeed he would have had gotten one of her married cousins to go instead if he wanted one of the nobles to have a damn mistress.
"No, I failed my mission, most of all I failed my village," said Temari trying to keep the bitterness from her voice. Maybe he would make her try and kill Gaara as a punishment, what a way to go; Kazekage ordered suicide via filicide.
"Yes, you did fail. However you did try hard at your job," the Kazekage placed a hand on her shoulder, the same shoulder that Kankurō had touched, and faintly squeezed it, "I had hoped that you did succeed but the faulty information is not your fault, you'll just have to try hard during the chūnin exams so that everything goes well," his eyes were intense on her. It was similar eyes to the demon within her brother; cold and driven. Same eyes that sentenced her mother to death and the same eyes that came up with the plan.
Right. The plan. It was practically suicide for the village but it was still better than letting the village die out by itself without trying anything.
"I will," stated Temari. She was not going to let them down this time. It was her village and it was her responsibility as oldest child of the Kazekage, and the only one to take their inheritance seriously, to take care of them if they didn't have an heir so she was going to do her damn job.
"Your mother would be proud of your determination," she flinched slightly at that sentence causing her to break character and she had been doing so well.
Damn it, damn it, damn it, DAMNIT!
SHE WAS A DAMN KUNOICHI!
SHE SHOULD ACT LIKE ONE! NOT LIKE A DAMN CIVILIAN CHILD!
Her father smiled in cold satisfaction. He didn't talk about her mother ever since she died. Not even in passing! So why now?
"You look so much like her," he paused for a second to grip her shoulder with a tight squeeze before letting off gently, "She too, would have wanted this all to happen," he trailed off before slowly brushing his hand over her shoulder while wearing a smile that didn't reach his eyes before dismissing her.
He forgot that she wasn't a child and could now see that he didn't care about them.
Pursing her lips she left. He didn't get to talk about her mother like that! He let her die! He encouraged it! Then her uncle as well!
She felt like she had to go and forget that she had a father, it'd probably be easier than it should considering that her father was the leader of her village. Her mother would have wanted the plan to take place too? In what country- no, in what world would her mother want to have them attack Konoha in a last ditch effort?!
She noticed Baki was hanging around the end of the corridor casually waiting for her, just before she actually past him. Now she was slipping! What if it was her other brother hanging around instead? What use was she to the village if she was dead? Would Kankurō lead the village? Would the Gaara do it instead if her killed her?
He gave her a quick look before reaching out to brush his hand over her shoulder, the same one her brother and father had touched, and rubbed his fingers together before showing her his hand.
On his fingers was a faint glittering; gold dust.
Fear crawled its way up from her stomach. The Kazekage put that on her. He put that on her. She shot a panicked look at Baki. Was it a warning? Was it a test? Was she going to be found in a dune with jackals and birds picking at her body?
Was she going to be forgotten in the desert with nobody to care?
Baki looked at her with narrowed eyes and cocked his head to the right before slowly shaking his head. He placed a finger that didn't have the gold dust to his lips in a signal to keep quiet.
Alright. Alright. They were going to carry on. They were going to pretend this never happened and they were going to go to war. Right.
Taking in a deep breath Temari walked out of the Kazekage's building to train. They needed everything they could get for this insane plan and she was not going to the reason they failed nor was she going to die.
She had to be alive for her village; she'll rest when she's dead.
When I talked about Moon Country within this chapter I'm referring to the Land of the Moon, one of them at least since there's two of them in this fanfic. This I've determined from the fact that there is two moon based ninja villages; Tsukigakure and Getsugakure. Tsukigakure is from one of the Naruto fighting games while Getsugakure is from the Naruto movie. One of these villages entered the Chunin exams, from the anime
Oh yes, the context of a woman asking if she could make miso soup for the rest of her life is her asking a man if she could be his wife.
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to rant about this time because the main source of my problems is mainly chakra, the way it works, and what is a timeline?
So this time I'm going to go a bit more political, in which I'm going to talk about the Daimyo of each country and what does the Kage of each country do.
So traditionally in Japanese history a Daimyo was like the equivalent of a Kage irl with the Emperor of Japan having the role of Damiyo (from Narutoverse).
So with this we could either conclude that there is a Emperor of all the countries and that each country is actually a county/state that the Daimyo is in charge of with the Kage being like a general while the Daimyo also has the role of a Field Marshall, one step above a General. The Daimyo could actually be an Emperor under a different name either due to Narutoverse historical connotations, since we know that Emperors exist in Narutoverse, or a trend or something that happened before the Warring Era. This would mean that the real title of Kage is Daimyo.
Both of these theories have implications for Narutoverse.
Theory 1: There is a Emperor in charge of at least 1 of the big 5 countries if not all of them meaning that the Daimyo are actually Daimyo.
If there was a Emperor in charge of the Daimyo then the way that the Daimyo interact with each otherr makes sense in that each of them were trying to get resources for their county/state and gain political influence with the Emperor with the Hidden Ninja Wars happening.
However this would make a question of where does this illusive Emperor live and how much of the land does he own? Does he spread out to Rock Country? To Demon Country? To the Land of the Moon (see above)? Where does it end and how much power does he actually have? And why, if this is the case, are the counties/states called countries?
This means that the Kage have less political power than what they actually have and if 1 Kage along with their village acts out against the system then 4 other Kage would be told to take them out by the higher ups. Not that they would consider to rebel since Japan loves their Imperial family and want to keep them alive.
However this would be an explanation for Boruto and how Naruto hadn't changed much to do with the Shinobi system.
Theory 2: Daimyo are Emperors and Kage are Daimyo but under a different name.
If this is the case then the Kage having more political power than what they would get in theory 1. This would mean each country is actually a country over a county/state and that if a country was defeated then the way the people live would change in either a large way or small way depending on what country defeats them or takes them over.
This also means that the punishment for the Kage if they authorise the military without permission would be less greater to the village than theory 1. This is because the country would still need their military more than in theory 1 where there would be more than 1 military so only the Kage would be punished in this theory.
It also makes sense considering that countries like Land of the Moon, where it has a separate royal family, would be safer than in theory 1 where they would be in fear of being taken over.
However the fact that they had Emperors and the Daimyo don't use the word would probably hint to the fact that historical connotations from before the Warring Era, and before the beginning of the villages, were involved and each ruler of the big 5 prefers to be called Daimyo as well.
So either theory could be true while also depending upon the political climate of the Emperor or the Daimyo, whichever one is in charge of the country. There could be a point where both theories were true, where there was an Emperor in charge of the countries but something happened to them and then the Daimyo came into power.
In conclusion I have no goddamned clue and I wish more people in the fandom would talk about it so I can get a better clue of what other people think about this.