Chapter 5: Retaken
The Imperial City of Dǎo Shì
Similar to the Shinobi of the Elemental Nations, the warriors of the Empire utilised their internal energies to achieve great physical feats and attain special abilities. Yet unlike shinobi whom first learnt to mold chakra from the teachings of the Rikudo Sennin, an Imperial soldiers didn't use their internal physical and spiritual energies, instead they learnt from a young age to channel the natural energy of the world itself through their bodies and create Chi.
Through the use of Chi a person could lift objects ten times greater than their own bodies and run for miles on end faster then the wind. The greater a person's ability with Qi, the easier it was to channel it through other objects such as weapons and armour and even control it outside of their bodies.
Many great users of Qi have been known to manipulate the elements, destroy mountains and even fly.
According to legend the first user of Chi, a monk, learnt to channel the energy of the world by listening to the trees and the birds that's lived near his monastery. This monk, whose name was forgotten to history, passed on this knowledge as a way from r others to learn to connect to nature.
Sadly as the centuries past the monks teachings were corrupted and the use of Chi evolved into a weapon of war used by the ever warring Kingdoms of the continent.
Wǔshì warriors, the profession soldiers of the Empire, trained from the age of twelve to learn how to create and utilize Chi. Before the Empire many of the Wǔshì come from noble families as relatives of their local Lords, this was to ensure the loyalty and obedience of any armies most valuable and dangerous fighters.
When he established the Imperial Army, Naruto did away with the old custom and instead ordered the construction of military academies in all the major cities of the Empire. He actively promoted any and all young men and women to sign up and become valued members of the army.
The main reason this was done was so Naruto could build and maintain a strong, loyal and disciplined military to control his vast Empire.
Still, many of his high ranking Generals and Lieutenants were still apart of the Aristocracy, being relatives of the ruling Lords and Kings.
Nevertheless Naruto was proud of his Military.
Before he even became Emperor Naruto sought to simplify the complicated command structure of his forces. The Imperial Army was divided into 10 thousand strong legions which were commanded by his Generals. The legions were then divided into divisions of 1 thousand soldiers lead by Lieutenants and then into 1 hundred man companies lead by their Captains.
The 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th legions, which were made up of the soldiers who fought for Naruto directly in the war, where spaced throughout the Empire, acting as strong military presence throughout the provinces and serving as a way for Naruto to intimidate any of his rebellious subjects.
The remaining legions were stationed in some of the major cities, training the armies led experienced recruits.
The 10th legion, Naruto's personal legion, was stationed in the Capital under the Emperors personal supervision as their recruits were being trained. This was so Naruto was always able to quickly gather a force to respond to any immediate threat, as well as a welcome distraction from the day to day politics of Government.
Today we find the young Emperor, dressed in his personal black plated armour under a black cape with a golden whirlpool that hung behind him, sparing with a few of his soldiers in a courtyard as a group of his advisors yelled at their ruler trying to get his attention.
"Your majesty, please, what shall we do about our grain stores, we won't have enough for the Festival and to last us through winter!" one of the advisors yelled quiet frantically, unsure if the Emperor heard as the Blonde dodged a spear and ducked under a sword aimed for his head.
"I ordered three shipments scheduled for next month from Lou province yesterday" Naruto replied as used his sword to parry another sword strike and kick the offending man out of the circle they stood in.
"Your majesty what of the Festival itself, the palace decorations aren't finished and the feast preparations haven't even begun!" Came the cry from another advisor
"I put Lady Sui in charge of the decorations and the cooks will begin tomorrow morning so none of the food will spoil before the feast" said Naruto as he charged at one of his opponents using the blunt edge of his sword to deflect a spear thrust and disarm the young soldier.
"Your majesty you have a cabinet meeting in less than an hour shouldn't you be getting ready?!"
Naruto simply parried another sword strike, used the pommel of his sword to hit his last opponent in the side of head helmet and grabbing the stunned man by the scruff of his collar before lifting the man off the ground holding his sword to his throat.
"The meeting starts in about 50 mins which is just enough time to get changed" was all Naruto said as he lowered the poor man down to the ground before bowing respectfully to his opponents who returned the gesture.
In light of his busy schedule the golden Haired ruler always made time to spare with his helped him keep in shapes as well as get to know the new soldiers getting trained in the Capital.
"As you can see gentleman I'm very well on top of things so if you don't mind I'll be headed back to the palace." Said Naruto as he sheathed his sword, his advisors simply bowed before leaving the courtyard.
As Naruto began his trek to the city centre and back to his palace he was greeted by a multitude of of people whom bowed respectfully as the Emperor passed by.
The palace itself was the biggest landmark of the city, made from magnificent red stone it stood proudly on the northern side of the Island built to the very edge of th. The palace gates soon opened for the Emperor as he promptly made his way to his personal quarters in order to prepare for what he knew to be a long and boring meeting.
Just as he neared the entrance to his quarters an elderly lady dressed in a long blue dress that exaggerated her rear end and her gray hair tied into pigs tails rushed frantically to the Emperor.
"Your majesty! Something terrible has happened *huff* *huff*" the lady spoke quickly before kneeling over trying to catch her breath.
"Lady Sui what's wrong?" Naruto said worryingly, wondering what in the world had gone so wrong for Lady Sui to be running around the palace.
"The... *huff* *huff* ...messenger just came ...*huff* *huff*... from Xinjiang, we …*huff* … they… *huff* *huff*..." was all the elderly woman could say in between deep breaths as she tried to say what she wanted to say.
"What's wrong? What's happened?" Naruto questioned again as he tried to help the poor women so she could speak.
Now breathing normally LadySui stood up to speak "We just received news… that..." Sui paused as she fought back tears. Whatever it was it definitely wasn't good.
"I'm sorry your majesty but… the crystal chandeliers won't make it in time for the festival."
Naruto simply deadpanned at what she said, from the way she had ran to him he thought there was an invasion or something.
It wasn't until later that Naruto realised something, he had already paid for the fucking chandeliers.
45 minutes later
In a large windowless room, Naruto sat at the head of a long wooden table that was covered with papers and scroll. There sat 7 people including Naruto around the table the table. The emperor wore a long Dark blue robe while each of his ministers was dressed in simple dark gray robes with white trimmings and their hair tied in traditional buns.
The room was rather plain looking with a glowing white crystal floating near the middle of the ceiling. The doors were closed and stood to the opposite end of the room from where Naruto sat with armed guards either side.
Unlike his many Lords whom usually always wore the same style of elaborate dress, which showed their status of Nobility, Naruto's ministers wore rather plain clothing, denoting their status as servants or advisors.
There were six ministers in total, each being personally selected by the Emperor for their own personal merits rather than social status.
Li Keqiang was the Emperor's minister for Agriculture, he sat to Naruto's right and spotted a black haired Goatee
Zhang Gaoli, whom was the Emperor's treasurer, sat to Naruto's left he was plain looking and wore large circular glasses over his face.
Liu Yandong the minister for Education, sat second on the Emperors right and was an incredibly old women with gray hair and a wrinkled face.
Guo Sheng, a young man with spiky brown hair, was the minister for justice and sat second to the Blonde rulers left.
Zhu Lin, the minister of commerce, was a young women with blonde hair not unlike Naruto's whom sat third on the left
Xin Hao, the Imperial Chancellor, sat on the opposite end of table from Naruto with his back to the door. He had jet black hair with a fine moustache that hung from his lip.
The Cabinet served as the bureaucratic arm of the Empire, implementing the Emperor's policies, carrying out his orders, collecting taxes and so on.
"Your majesty I must ask, may I ask why does Lady Sui feel the need to spend half the annual budget on such preposterous things like bone candelabras, 6 foot tall ice sculptures, silk ribbon confetti and a tank full of blue Ascidians? What even is an Ascidian?!" The Treasure said as he looked over the palace expenditures for the decorations and festival preparations.
"I believe that they're a kind of exploding sea mammal if I'm not mistaken" said Xin, not lifting his gaze from the reports he was reading.
"I'll be sure to talk with Lady Sui about her expenses… and her exploding fish" said Naruto, as he began to regret giving Sui free rein for the festival.
"Your majesty could you please sign this, its for the construction of a bronze statue of your likeness in Bei Wan town square" Zhu Lin said as she handed the Emperor a piece of paper
"For god's sake isn't there enough statues of me in every city?" Said the Blonde
"According to the people of Bei Wan… No" said the Commerce minister rather plainly as the Emperor took the document and signed it.
This was the general flow of the meeting for the next half an hour or so. His Imperial Ministers would hand Naruto various report and documents to sign, with the treasurer questioning over the multitude of expenses for the upcoming festival.
"We'll seeing as I have another meeting with the lords and kings of the Empire I think that would be all for today" Naruto said he rose from his chair.
The other occupants of the room stood as well, but before the Blonde Emperor could leave, the Chancellor decided to bring up one more thing.
"Your majesty before we're dismissed may I inquire into one last topic of interest?" Said Xin
"What is it?" Questioned Naruto
"King Chun of Tian, King Lū of Kan and various other lords have sent petitions in regards to...um… your future wife?"
Naruto simply rolled his eyes at this, the question of whom would become Empress was apparently all the nobility could gossip about.
"For fuck sake" Naruto whispered under his breath "Just tell them that I'm a little too busy to be concerned about that right now"
"As you wish your Majesty" Xin said as he gave a bow.
"Now would you all follow me to the great hall so we can get the last meeting of the day finished with" and with that the Emperor exited the cabinet room followed by his Ministers.
When Naruto first arrived on this side of the world, he was quite taken by the many strict traditional that all levels of society followed. For example the style and type clothes one wore was determined by their birth status, noble wore long silk robes whilst comets wore simple shirts and trousers.
A women's hair was expected to be styled in some way while a man's hair was usually tied in a bun and. Naruto didn't bother with this one simply cause he could be bothered with doing his hair normally unruly hair every day.
But one of the most important traditions in the entire continent was that all able bodied young men and women were to be married by the time they were twenty one. Naruto who was approaching his twenty first birthday was constantly bombarded by marriage offers from the many eager ladies of the Aristocracy.
Normally a person's parents would be the ones to find suitable candidates for marriage. In the nobility this normally lead to arranged marriages for political gain.
Since Naruto had no parents around, many eager members of the nobility had taken it upon themselves to find the most suitable women for the young Emperor.
It was quite ironic, as a child in Konoha Naruto did anything he could to gain the attention of his female peers. Now he had half of an Empire that was trying to marry him.
Konohagakure
A young women, with long black hair and white pupiless eyes was walking the streets of the hidden leaf village. It was late in the afternoon and in the last got of the setting sun she wore a lavender sleeveless kimono-style blouse that was tied with a dark purple obi around her waist. She wore a pair of short dark navy shorts with thigh-high stockings as well as black high-heeled shinobi boots.
This woman was Hinata Hyuga, head of the Hyuga Clan, Jounin of Konohagakure and one of the most powerful women the village.
Hinata was currently making her way towards the village centre, in particular the Hokage Tower.
Soon she had arrived at the door to the Hokages office, and after knocking she was ushered in.
"Lady Tsunade how can I help you?" Said Hinata as she approached the desk and gave a respectful bow.
"You could sort out all this paperwork for me"
Answered Tsunade rather sarcastically and without raising her head away from the many stacks of documents that cluttered her desk. Her green Haori was placed over her chair and her hair seemed a little out of place. Obviously she wasn't have a good day.
"I would gladly like to help but unfortunately I have my own paperwork to do so I don't want to add any more" Hinata said rather bluntly
Giving a light chuckle and leaning back in her chair Tsunade now turned her gaze to the Hyuga head and one of her closest friends.
Despite the age gap between them both women had been able to bond over their many similarities over the years. Both wear descended from great noble clans, both were seen as leaders in the village and both held great affection for a certain blonde that had made a significant impact on both their lives.
When Naruto left Hinata was actually the first to notice he was gone. The morning after he ran away Hinata had made her way to his hospital room with some take away Ichiraku ramen an intention of revealing her long held feelings from him. I'm sure you can image the heartbreak in not seeing her crush in bed and later finding out he had abandoned the leaf.
Tsunade was the one who consoled the poor girl and later would take her under her wing. With Tsunade's help Hinata had grown into a fine young Kunoichi and had finally instilled some self confidence in the girl who once couldn't mutter a single sentence without stuttering.
"I need you to do a favour for me" said Tsunade
"What kind of favour"
"A big one"
"How big"
"Big enough for me to knock you through a wall if you keep going"
Who knew that with a little self esteem one could also become a bit of a smart ass.
"I need you to head to Kumo and meet up with Shikamaru as my representative."
"What for Lady Tsunade?" Hinata asked, now quiet curious
"He'll fill you in on the details later, but for now all I can say is that a major political dilemma is going to unfold and at the moment I can't leave the village to handle it, so I need someone with her own political influence as head of a powerful clan, as well as someone I can trust to handle it for me"
Hinata understood what the elder women really meant. Something was suspicious happening and the leaf couldn't be seen as overeager in having the Hokage personally investigate it, she also wasn't sure what was going to happen and couldn't trust any others to this task.
"I'll leave tomorrow then Lady Hokage" Hinata said with a bow as she left the office.
Tsunade now alone resumed her paperwork, yet her thoughts were more preoccupied with the ever more suspicious 'Yoshimaru incident' as it was coming to be known.
Shikamaru had sent word back to Konoha, giving details in how he had, after a little snooping, discovered that the Lord of the Land of Lighting had been planning in establishing a colony on the islands of Yoshimaru. Apparently the Daimyo has received word that it appeared someone else was occupying the Islands and had ordered the Raikage to 'investigate'.
'Like it takes a hundred Jounin level ninja to carry out an investigation'
Tsunade could feel that this was going to be a big issue for the alliance, if someone had decided to just set up camp on the islands then the Raikage was almost certainly going to make a fuss about it.
And when he made a fuss it usually ended in blood on the floor
Islands of Yoshimaru
Durai was currently at his wits end, he had been here for nearly a week trying to gather the remaining islanders who managed to evade capture when he and his men first arrived.
The main island was clear but the surrounding island that were simply covered in vegetation were a different story, add to the fact that the remaining islanders had decided to sink one of his ships and place traps everywhere also had an effect on the dark skin man's mood.
He hadn't needed to take any lives yet but in all honesty he was deliberating whether or not he should in light of the fact that at this rate he wouldn't be able to take all the people he had captured back to the land of lightning.
Currently he was standing at the beach not far away from the main village. His men were anchoring their remaining ships after having scouted the area for any remaining islanders. Tomorrow they would set sail for the land of lightning and take as many as they could, Durai would also have to get word to the Raikage about the statue in the village they had found.
"CAPTAIN 6 O'CLOCK!" a Kumo nin shouted, pointing at the biggest ship Durai had ever seen that was moving around the island headed towards the beach.
"CAPTAIN LOOK!" Another nin shouted as he too pointed out another, equally massive ship coming around the island for the other direction.
Quickly scanning each vessel, Durai noted that unlike his own ships, these behemoths were not made of wood, no these were made of metal.
That had no sails, and from what he Durai could tell, they seemed to have some kind of large metal cylinders that had smoke rising from the tops.
Durai could also see something moving on each ship as they drew closer to the stunned shinobi. Some kind of long metal barrels or tubes them at rotated to point in the Kumo shinobi direction
"GET DOWN!" Durai shouted just before a series of earth shattering BOOM's went off and in less then a second the beach erupted in a mass of explosions. In his confusion as he ran for cover, Durai could see his ships were destroyed and many of his shinobi were being blown apart by what ever was bombarded the beach.
"GET BACK THE VILLAGE" Durai shouted at whoever could listen as he made a beeline for the village.
Dào shi
As he entered the grand hall, followed by his ministers, Naruto nodded politely at the crowd of nobles who bowed respectfully to the Emperor.
As he approached his throne Naruto nodded to a servant who I turn nodded at the two guards at the door who proceeded to close it.
As Naruto sat in his throne, which was surrounded by his advisors and cabinet ministers, the kings of the Empire approached their own respective thrones and sat as well.
Just as was about to address the noble, a loud knocking echoed through the hall as all eyes turned to the doors.
Unsure to guards looked to the Emperor whom nearly nodded. The two guards the opened the doors allowing a young man in soldiers armour carrying a small scroll to enter the great hall and rush to the Emperor's throne.
The soldier who seemed quiet frantic, handed the scroll to Xin hao inspected the scroll.
Seeing a small seal with a cross ingrained into a red wax, the chancellor handed the scroll to Naruto who promptly opened it and read its contents.
The Emperor's eyes visibly widened as he stood firm his throne. After reading the scroll he looked over the curious crowd who waited eagerly for him to speak
"Lū dào had been attacked" the Emperor declared
"Lord Huang of Xinjiang has mobilised the 3rd fleet to respond to Lord Chen's call for help" he said further as heavy silence fell across the hall.
"Chancellor Xin, ready the 10th legion and send word to Admiral Yin to meet me at Xinjiang and end work to all of the legions to keep watch for any unrest." Naruto ordered as Xin bowed before quickly left the hall
The gathered nobles simply watched as Naruto stormed out of the hall. After hearing that his good friend and what was essentially his hometown was under attack Naruto was in no mood for petty squabbles or marriage proposals.