Chapter 72: Never Absent
Hidden Cloud Ninja Academy
The sun was setting. After school, a group of children were playing in the schoolyard.
"Behold my Tailed Beast attack! Pew pew!"
"Sabii, stop spitting!"
"Don't call me Sabii! Call me Killer! Killer Bee, the ninja killer."
The news of Blue Bee single-handedly holding off an entire village had reached the Cloud. While the adults' opinions of Jinchuriki might not have changed overnight, many of the children now looked up to him as a hero. They didn't care if the tailed beasts were a malevolent force. They didn't even know what a tailed beast was. All they knew was that they were cool and powerful.
As it happened, Ume and her husband were passing by. Hearing the energetic voices from the school, they exchanged a smile.
Ume hugged the baby in her arms a little tighter. "Do you want our child to be a ninja when she grows up?" she asked.
Her husband was a little flustered by the question. "If she likes it," he said with a smile, "we'll support her. But for a girl, it's probably better to be a research-type ninja, like her dad. All that fighting is too dangerous."
Ume was not pleased. She shot him a look. "There are plenty of outstanding female ninja, you know," she said. "Right, Yugito-chan?"
"Goo," the baby in her arms gurgled and fell back asleep.
In the Yotsuki compound, the Third Raikage, the clan elder Nakazawa, and Dana were sitting at the dinner table.
The Raikage poured himself a glass of sake. "I never imagined," he said, "that the 'blacksmith's shop' project would grow to this extent. At the time, I chose to use the Yotsuki clan's resources instead of the village's simply for convenience. If it failed, it would be easier to handle internally. I never thought it would change so much in just four years. It was my mistake. A failure of foresight."
He poured a glass for Nakazawa. When he came to Dana's glass, he hesitated, then, under Dana's awkward gaze, moved on.
"I am both the head of the Yotsuki clan and the Kage of this village. When problems arise between the clan and the village, the responsibility is mine. But from the very beginning, I never intended for the 'blacksmith's shop' to be a private enterprise of the Yotsuki clan. It will belong to the Hidden Cloud. It can only belong to the Hidden Cloud."
Now even Dana was surprised. Nakazawa shot to his feet.
"A!" he roared. "Do you know what you're saying?! Do you know what this project means to our clan?! Do you know what it's worth?! This alone could secure the Yotsuki clan's future for a hundred years!"
But the Third Raikage's voice was even louder. "I am the Kage of this village! The head of this clan! No one knows its value better than I do! But there is no business that lasts a hundred years, no wealth that lasts a hundred years! What has sustained the Yotsuki clan to this day is the power of the ninja, and the countless other ninja of the Land of Lightning who stand united behind us! Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of those two things!"
"They're not saying they don't want to be ninja!" Nakazawa pleaded. "They just..."
"They just don't want to take missions from the village anymore," Dana interrupted. "They don't want to face the dangers of battle. Seventh Grand-uncle, people like that have always existed, in every clan. They are still our clansmen. They just lacked a good reason to choose that path before."
It was only human nature, for the lower ranks to want to escape the system, and for the higher ranks to be unwilling to give up their vested interests. But for those in power, it was important to understand that just because something exists doesn't mean it's right. It was their duty to correct and restrain these errant human impulses.
"If this continues," the Raikage added, "the clan's strength will inevitably decline, and the rift between the Yotsuki and the village will only grow wider."
"Then what do you propose to do?" Nakazawa asked with a sigh. It wasn't that he didn't understand. It was that he couldn't bear to let it go.
"Dad," Dana interjected, "do you remember when I was a kid, I told you that the village wasn't deeply involved in the daily lives of its ninja, especially the clans? Perhaps this is an opportunity. Grand-uncle Nakazawa, there's no need to worry. We're not asking the Yotsuki to give it up. We're giving them an opportunity to better lead and unite the village."
The Third Raikage laughed. "Hahaha! That's my son! You think just like me! But the time is not yet right!"
"Then when will the time be right?" Nakazawa asked.
"The time will be won in battle," the Third Raikage said, his voice grim.
"But this time," Dana added with a smile, "we'll be fighting a different kind of battle."
At the end of Konoha's year 39, just as the ninja world thought the stalemate would last forever, the Hidden Sand suffered a crushing defeat in a direct confrontation with Konoha.
Chiyo's poison was countered by Tsunade. Even her own son and daughter-in-law were killed on the battlefield by the rising star, the White Fang of Konoha. Chiyo herself was broken, and the Sand suffered countless casualties.
No one had expected the Sand to fall so quickly, so completely.
After their great victory, Konoha signed a peace treaty with the Sand, making them the first major power to be effectively defeated in the Second Great Ninja War.
But the most surprising thing was that the Sand, unwilling to accept their defeat, after signing the peace treaty, turned around and attacked the Hidden Stone, their former tacit ally, hoping to assist Konoha and get a piece of the pie to make up for their losses.
This act redefined the ninja world's understanding of a "great village" and sent Onoki into a rage. The pressure on the Stone Village on the Rain battlefield increased dramatically.
"Are those bastards in the Sand made of stone?!" the garlic-nosed Onoki roared in his tent.
He had always looked down on the Sand as a weak ally. The Stone had been bearing the brunt of the fighting against Konoha. And now, his ally had switched sides. It was foreseeable that the Sand's reputation in future alliances would be severely damaged. But that was a problem for the future. The immediate problem was how to face a Konoha that had freed up its western forces, plus a Sand Village that was now a jackal at their heels.
From a two-on-one, it had become a one-on-two. The Stone Village naturally began to think about finding an ally of their own.
Before, they had been wary of the Cloud's intentions, and there had been rumors of a split between the war and peace factions within the village. So, since the Cloud had not entered the war, Onoki had been content to leave them alone, just keeping an eye on them.
But now things were different. Of the five great villages, the Mist was too far away, and they had a grudge with the Stone. And now they were being held at bay by a single Cloud Jinchuriki. That left only one option: an alliance with the Cloud. The moment he heard that the Sand had switched sides, Onoki had sent an envoy to the Cloud.
If all else fails, he thought, we can let the Mist loose to cause trouble for Konoha. In his view, the warrior-like Cloud could not stay out of the war forever. And in the current situation, an alliance with the Stone against Konoha was a no-brainer.
At the same time, after defeating the Sand, Hiruzen had quickly realized that the Cloud had become the key to the war. The feat of a single Jinchuriki holding off an entire village was so brilliant that all the villages had realized that the Cloud had likely accumulated a vast amount of power. If the Cloud entered the war, the impact would be far greater than that of the Sand. Hiruzen knew this well. In the First Great Ninja War, it had been the Cloud that had inflicted the most losses on Konoha. In terms of war potential, the Cloud was not inferior to the Leaf.
So, after defeating the Sand, he had immediately sent an envoy to the Cloud, hoping to persuade the peace faction in their leadership and prevent an alliance between the Cloud and the Stone. If he was lucky, maybe he could even get them to ally with Konoha. They could fight the Stone together. A man can dream, can't he?
But the peace faction in the Cloud was proving to be elusive. His envoy had reported that while many knew that a number of high-ranking officials were in the peace faction, no one knew who they were, and he was still trying to find a way to meet them.
Danzo, of course, knew who the leader of the peace faction was. He even wrote to him regularly. But he had no intention of sharing that secret.
A week later, news that was even more shocking than the Sand's defeat reached the ninja world.
The Hidden Cloud had announced an alliance.
Their ally was the Hidden Rain Village.
When Hanzo of the Salamander heard the news, he burst into tears of joy. "My old friend did not deceive me!" he cried. "Hahaha! The time has come!"
The Hidden Cloud had announced an alliance with the Hidden Rain, condemning the great nations for ignoring the will of the smaller countries and turning their lands into battlefields, and firmly opposing all acts of oppression. As a great village, the Cloud had a duty to uphold justice and order in the ninja world.
For the sake of this great justice, the Hidden Cloud now declared war on all non-Rain forces within the borders of the Land of Rain.
Effective immediately.