CHAPTER 12: Truth Revealed

Our story continues a month later. War has begun when Iga attacked Koga. Shinn and Stellar had tried ways to avoid the war but to no avail.

Koga Village – Outskirts

"Shinn" Stellar called out to him as their troops are approaching Koga fast.

Shinn made sure no one was listening and went forwards to Stellar "What's wrong?"

"Shinn, Stellar don't want to fight. What if Athrun and Cagalli did not manage to make preparations on time? What if what Shinn and Stellar are doing now is really an ambush?"

"Relax Stellar, trust me. I believe that Athrun and Cagalli had made all the necessary preparations. Let's go before they suspect us"

Stellar nodded and they both quickly ran forwards to catch up with the rest of the troops, just in time to see an explosion occur at one of the houses near the outskirts of the Koga village. There were screams and many people were seen running everywhere. The Koga shinobi jumped into action to protect their people and begun fighting the Iga shinobi that are invading.

Koga Village – Within

Athrun was busy ordering the Koga shinobi around. He only managed to evacuate part of the village before the Iga ninjas attacked. Cagalli was helping out with the evacuation plan and ran over to Athrun after she has completed her work as her area assigned had been evacuated. Athrun was busy shouting at a group of shinobi when she went up to him.

"Where's Mizukage-sama?! How could you guys be careless?!"

"Athrun!" Cagalli called him, in time after he ordered them to help out to hold the Iga shinobi off "What's wrong?"

"My mother, we cannot find her since we started the evacuation"

"She couldn't go and find the Hokage, could she?!"

"Hopefully not. I've heard that when two top-ranking shinobi fight, the scene is really horrifying!"

"And I've heard that they usually won't stop until one of them is dead"

"Don't scare me Cagalli!"

"I'm not! I'm just speaking the truth! Besides, don't you have faith in your mother?"

"I do but, I don't know exactly how strong he is"

"Shinn and Stellar have seen his powers before, remember Athrun?! They told us that they've seen the battle between Hokage and Kira"

"We can't possibly talk to them about it now, can we? We're in a battle now" Athrun then turns into a whisper. "If we see them, we have to at least act a bit"

"Yes, I know that, so what are your orders for me now?"

"Orders?"

"Come on! Be your mother's son!"

"Alright, alright! Help the others out with the evacuation; I want a small group of 5 doing the evacuation while the others are to hold them off"

"That's more like it!" Cagalli said to him as she hurried to another area to help out.

Silent Mountains

Kira was panting as he was training with Andrew. His training was no easy task but he was sure that he was pushing his potential as a shinobi to the limits. That night, when Lacus was making dinner, Andrew went out to Euphoria to purchase some products, as Kira lay on the grass beside the base of the waterfall.

"Lacus"

"Yes, Kira?"

"It's nice to be able to live like this" Kira replied to her looking into the night sky. "Where there are no wars, no conflict, and no tension"

Lacus came out of the house carrying a pot of hot soup and pour some of it into a bowl and pass it to Kira.

"Yes, I wished that too, Kira. But I believe that that day will come and the both of us will be living together like this without worrying about anyone wanting to kill us"

"It's good that you guys are enjoying yourselves here" Andrew interrupted as he returned. "Sorry but I've got some bad news. At Euphoria, everyone was talking about the war currently taking place between Iga and Koga"

Kira and Lacus stood still at their positions stunned.

"War? But how's that possible?" Kira spoke softly.

"Who started it?" Lacus asked.

"Word gone around that it was Iga who first attacked Koga. But I'm not …"

"I'm going" Kira interrupted.

"Kira!" Lacus looked at him with a worried look.

"Lacus, if I'm not mistaken. All this had happened because of me. In their opinion, they may be thinking that Mizukage sent me to kidnap you and hence declare war. But all this has got nothing to do with Koga. I'm responsible for all this. I took you away for my own desires"

"Kira …" Lacus then gave him a firm look. "If you're going, so am I"

"Lacus …"

"I'm too responsible. If I've chosen not to marry, you needn't come to save me and this would not have happened."

"Stop blaming yourselves" Andrew interrupted them. "What's done is done. Going back may not solve much anyways"

"Why are you saying that?" Kira felt anger in him for the first time since Andrew started training him. "Do you expect us to just sit back and do nothing?!"

"Relax Kira, I didn't say anything like that" Andrew answered him. "There're some things that the both of you don't know. A bit of Iga and Koga history"

"I've learnt about the history when I was a kid, there's nothing special" Kira said, trying to recall.

"Though they do teach the younger generation some of our history, there're some things that even the current Hokage and Mizukage don't know"

"How's that possible?" Lacus asked. "Both Hokage and Mizukage know the entire history of our villages"

"There are some things that I believe they don't. If they knew as I did, they wouldn't fight each other anymore but perhaps, joined forces"

"I don't understand" Kira replied, frowning.

"Me neither" Lacus agreed.

"Well, if you two don't mind if I use some of your time to bring you back into the past"

"Ok, but make it quick"

"During my younger days, as a Koga shinobi, I fell for an Iga shinobi. I was actually to be killed when Mizukage found out about it. But he didn't as our people objected, but I got banished from the village for the rest of my life. The girl I loved decided to leave with me, you know, go somewhere where we can live the rest of our lives in peace. But she got killed during her escape with me, and told me, with the last of her strength, her final wish. She wanted me to bring peace to both villages. So after I've came here, to the silent mountains and settled down, built a house and everything. I started to attempt to fulfill her wish but looking for means to find out how war initially begun. In school, I've learnt that Koga and Iga started out as two separate peace-loving villages. So I felt strange to the reason why they ended up fighting each other. They didn't teach us anything at school about it, that's another weird thing"

"So what did you do then?"

"What I did? Well, I went to the capital. I thought that their library records should have some information about it. But I've found none, which I found absolutely weird. The government did not keep a record of anything that happened to Iga and Koga, not a single one. Then one day, I came across an old book, a really old one, seems to be at least 50 over years old, it was a diary. I cannot believe my eyes when I read its contents …"

"What is it about? Who wrote it? Can you trust this person?"

"At that time, I was also asking myself if I can trust him, but I saw the seal. That cannot be fake; he is a one of the government officials. According the contents, the government was responsible for all. They made both villages turn against each other, in fear that the shinobi might overpower them"

"That's … That's impossible!" Kira was dumbfounded, so was Lacus.

"If the both of you don't trust me, you can trust this" Andrew took the book out from his jacket, flipped to a particular page and hand it over to them. Kira took it and read its content, with Lacus reading at his side. The pages of the book were so old that some edges of the papers were torn and the pages were all yellowish and dirty. The entries were quite short, seems like the writer did not have much time to write it, and Kira also noticed the year that the diary entries were written. It was about 150 years ago!

September the 14th

Today is the results of the election, to be honest, I was really nervous at the thought that I didn't sleep at all. I went to the parliament house earlier, praying that I've got what I wanted after 4 months of hard work. I was there, at my seat, feeling extremely nervous, for about 2 hours before the ex-president arrived to announce the results and was really pleased to find out that I've got one of the very positions I wanted! My wife was pleased and she personally cooked me a delicious candlelight dinner of steak! I was looking forward to tomorrow, my day in office!

September the 15th

My first day in office! I was dressed in my best clothes before heading to the office. It was quite a pleasant day, until the new president called for an urgent meeting for all government officials. It was getting late already and I've promised my wife to be home for dinner early, but there's no choice, this is my job! So I gave her a call saying that I cannot be back in time for dinner. She understood and we managed to finish our conversation in time for the meeting. It's the meeting that ruin the rest of my day, the president was considering the elimination of the well-known villages of Iga and Koga, which are located over the silent mountains! He said that the existence of shinobi in the country creates a risk for the government, that shinobi had the power to overthrow the government if we did something they are not in favor of. Honestly thinking, I trust that they're innocent. They have been so peace-loving for about 100 years already! So how is it possible that they will turn against us?! It's difficult to argue as the president's stand was really firm and convincing. I sincerely hope that war will not break out …

The rest of the entries were hard to read as the words have faded so much and Andrew took the book from them and flipped to another page. He then returned it to Kira's hands and the couple continued to read.

October the 20th

Bad news! No matter how hard I tried, I cannot turn the tables around. The government proceeded to secretly spark war between both villages. They intended to make both villages feel that one is creating war on the other. They did not release the news into the media, so prevent them from losing the support of the other human population. They also faked and send troops to quiet things out, obviously the troops don't know the real truth and thought that the government was really sincere to try their best to stop the war. It's really terrible! All my life … I've never done something so underhand! I tried to object by approaching the president personally today. It took less than 10 minutes and I was fired! How unreasonable can he be?! I really pity the people for electing such a selfish president! I gladly resigned as I don't have to serve such selfish people anymore!

"This is really ridiculous!" Lacus said after they both read finished

"But it's the truth, nothing was change what has already happened" Andrew replied.

"But you could use this! Show this to the people of the villages and they can understand" Kira suggested.

"I tried, but they don't even let a banished shinobi into Koga, let alone seeing the Mizukage. And I thought going to Iga won't help much, as I trust that they won't believe a stranger talking about something as important as this"

"So what you did was return here and lives the rest of your life like this?"

"No, though I did came back to my home, here at the silent mountains, but I've been thinking about ways to overcome this misunderstanding"

"I see, but I think we should still go back" Kira said.

"This war won't end by simple means, keep that in mind"

"Yes, I know" Lacus agree. "But I guess we can try to tell them the truth"

"Since, the both of you insisted, I won't force you to stay" Andrew told them. "At the meantime, I shall check out the capital once again, after all these years, to see if there are any new details. I will inform you guys"

"Thanks for everything, Andrew" Kira said as the both of them left towards Koga.

"Kira!" Andrew called as Kira turned back to face him "About the skills I've passed down to you. Don't use them too recklessly; you just might as you're still young."

"Don't worry, I will remember that, sensei" Kira answered as he turned back to embark on the journey home.

"All the best to the both of you, my young apprentices" Andrew shouted over Kira's shoulder as they left.

The next one up! Abit sooner than I've expected, but hoped you guys liked it!

For those who read chapter 10 and are wondering what Andrew is going to teach, I'm sorry to say that I won't reveal it, but obviously you will read about how much Kira had learnt from him, and how much stronger Kira has grown just after only a month of tough and serious training. What's more, the showdown of Hokage vs Mizukage is coming up! In the next few chapters, you'll be able to find out about the elements that the other characters specialises in. During that month, Athrun, Cagalli, Shinn and Stellar were also trained to specialise in different elements, you'll get to know them pretty soon. And the element of another character, surely, you will get to know is the Mizukage ...

So stay tuned! Reviews are, of course, welcomed!