The Hill

[The Town Taunts Hadou]

>XX>XX>XXOn the hill, a cherry tree stands, carved with many different things, messages to a friend, a heart with letters carved in it, a bottle rested near the trunk with flowers in it. This hill was the start for many shinobi and is considered to be the meeting place of spirits and mortals to interact. From above, the day seems to stay the same, never changing, never ending...and thats okay. At the bottom of the hill, a campfire rests there, the fire burns brightly.

Chakra remains in constant equilibrium, never rising, never falling, this makes jutsu ineffective here. Its a place to interact and any attempts to destroy the peace of the hill drags RPC's into the underworld, or hell if you want to be deep and poetic.

 

[The Town Taunts Hadou]

"AAAAH! I'M ON FIRE! I'M ON FI-...oh...!" Jin stood there, patting at his body and realized he wasn't burning anymore. His wounds and cuts that he limped into Konoha with, the war, the fight, it was nowhere to be seen. He held two ethereal hookswords in his hands which he got scared by and dropped them as they faded away. "GAH! what? w-where am I?! Kazesenshi?! Kazemaru?!?! Miwata-chan?! TAVIAN?! Lord Hokage?!!?!" He called out to them, backing up and into the cherry tree that was perched gracefully over the hill, petals falling and landing on the Chuunin's head.

"All I can remember is the war with cloud, blood of my allies surrounded me along with corpses, Hanzo was there receiving intel from my friend Tavian and then..." he couldn't remember the rest, it all become a hazy black as he was pulled into the deepest regions of the darkness at that point and then, he was here. He sat himself under the tree and buried his face in his hands, shaking from the realization of it all, he couldn't believe it, "...am I...dead?" A small rabbit would give a soft squeak and clean his whiskers, scratching his ear with his hind paw before looking to Jin with a soft nod before skittering off in the opposite direction. Jin tried to follow after it yelling "DON'T GO! PLEASE?!" but ended up rolling down the hill and into a log that was surrounding a campfire.

 

[Sorgaren]

The Town Taunts Hadou

"You're in the afterlife, young man. Though I'm surprised you're not consciously realizing it until now. You must have been wandering on the mortal plane for quite some time if you're just getting here."
Many years had separated the two from their last encounter, so it was very much possible that Jin didn't even recognize the older, pale man before him. If he did, by some off chance, recognize Kaisen, the bad memories would begin to flow almost immediately. After all...this was the man who'd taken his life in the first place. Given his age, and the similar appearance traits of the Uchiha, it would be possible that Jin even mistook this man for the reigning Hokage at that time; Uchiha Hanzo. "And quite a lot has changed in that world since you left it, I must say. Many wars and battles have torn the world even more asunder, and confounded...the resulting calamity of all that gathering energy even tore the shinobi world asunder. What a tragedy." With the smoothness of silk, and an unnatural calm, Kaisen delivered these words. Patiently now, he would wait for the bombardment of questions that would likely begin to stream out of the young man's lips.

 

[The Town Taunts Hadou]

The hair, that face, he wouldn't forget it. It was burned in his very memory as he couldn't let it go. He was the one. The man who put him here in the first place, isolated and alone. The world probably moved on without him and left him to become maggot food and it was all THIS man's fault. His eyes changed to a demonic black and yellow as the tattoos of his hellish bloodline ran along his body like etchings of a demon. His eyes sharpening with disgust.

"you...YOU!!! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT DID THIS TO ME!!! YOUR THE ONE WHO PUT ME IN THIS HELL HOLE, YOU b*****d!!"

He shouted, hoarse with rage as the area around him, the grass and leaves slowly started to wither and die from the boy's rage, but then...all of a sudden, every restarted back to 0 for him. His evil energy faded, his eyes returned to normal, his tattoos faded away, and the grass came back to life in an instant. "W-what...? What?! How did this even...? You..." He glares at you, relaxing his hands as if he was ready to fight, and Kaisen didn't even need to raise a finger to stop Jin, the spirit world did it for him.

"You did something...you did something to me...I don't know what, but I can't be dead! I can't! I was just in Konoha, Hanzo and Tavian were ready to drive you Kumo scum out of our land, but then, I..." He realized it, it came to him like a ton of bricks being dropped onto his shoulders, he stumbles back and onto the log at the campfire, sitting down. It burned his tongue and throat to say it, he bit his bottom lip hard but no blood was drawn. He didn't want to say it, but he had to admit it,

"Y-you're right...I am dead."



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Sovngarde Awaits

 

[Sorgaren]

The Town Taunts Hadou

"Yes, that's about the reality of the situation." Kaisen's tone was even, boring almost. He'd seen a lot more in the shinobi world, and many more things had happened within that finite span of time. The difference between the two of them--in terms of experience--was clear as day. It was by unfortunate circumstances that Jin had crossed jutsu with Kaisen that day, as he was the only casualty of the battle that day. Well, he and Kazemaru. "I have to tell you, though...quite a lot has happened between your death and mine. Many battles, even more deaths. Despite the circumstances, and your own personal stake in the matter, my viewpoint on war and the world shifted dramatically in that long span of time." The man would let out a deep sigh, putting a hand through his hair as he continued to speak. "I left the shinobi with a solution. A way to save themselves from the endless cycle of battle and conflict. Whether they choose to take that option or not will be entirely on them, but the history books can never say I didn't try to save them."

He looked at Jin again, his eyes glowing with a different kind of energy. Most definitely not the Sharingan. A different sort of energy. "And I wouldn't lie to you and say that many more won't die as a result. But that's the cost of progress. In our battle, there was no progress, no change; after the battle with you, I nearly died in combat with your Hokage. That would have changed absolutely nothing, just as our battle was yet another needless couple of deaths. The system will change. It has to."

 

[The Town Taunts Hadou]

"-but it won't..."

He interrupted at the end, he was now just staring into the blue flames of the campfire that changed into an ominous purple thanks to Jin's Yamikonton, even the young Chuunin's eyes would flash to their menacing black and yellow but no hostility was held, "The system won't change, as much as you or I want that, even before I died I wanted to try and create peace among the nations as my goal. I though that maybe if I could become Hokage someday, surpass the greats like Akira and Hanzo, maybe I could be the first and only who looked to change the world as it was, that much would be enough." But then he gave a cold chuckle as he ran his own hand through his hair and along his face, "but maybe that was a childish dream, a foolish one that kids think of at the academy. The way the world works is that people need someone to point their fingers at, to come together, to fight together, to die together. Sometimes we point our fingers at each other to blame, other times we point it at one common enemy, we even point it at ourselves at one time or another." Kaisen may not have cared about Jin's rambling on about life, death, how the world works, and how the system was through the eyes of a freshly dead shinobi, but it was better that he said this now than later.

"You know, at one point I was stupid enough to think I could protect everyone and no one would have to die under my protection, that I could get everything I wanted if I trained hard enough. I even ran off to different lands and trained with a guy who was deemed a Rasengan sage if you can believe that. Sounds stupid right? I know. Who knew I'd die before I could even try..." His head hung low as he laced his fingers together, hunching his back forward while giving a rather seldom sigh, feeling as if his world was crashing down on him hard and fast. I mean, he had to have been depressed, his killer was talking to him nonchalantly and he doesn't even bat an eye.




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Sovngarde Awaits

 

[Sorgaren]

The Town Taunts Hadou

"It wasn't stupid of you to dream." Kaisen's retort was clear-cut and sharp as a knife, cutting into that downy depressive state Jin seemed to be throwing himself into. What was it with these hero types and entering slumps so easily? The naivety of youth was something the older man missed so much...and yet he doubt he would have ever gone back given the chance. "To think you can save everyone? Yes, that's most definitely foolish. But dreaming of becoming Hokage isnt necessarily a terrible dream." Looking up at the sky of the spiritual world, the old man would let out a deep sigh before continuing, the whole affair starting to feel more like a counseling session than an actual conversation. He had to remember he'd killed this young man quite early in his career; naivety was to be expected in quantities.

"Ultimately, you and I were both victims of the world; I just came here later than you. The countermeasures I've set in place will...force a change. Soon, the shinobi of the world will understand the meaning of peace...even if it comes with a set of iron gloves. This world is imperfect, and no solution man thinks to impose will ever make it a perfect world. It's for that reason that we must pursue every solution, be it imperfect or not. I've cast the first stone...and it's up to my descendants now to finish the job."

 

[The Town Taunts Hadou]

"Not trying to look for spoilers or anything...actually, since I can't interfere with what happens now, what DID you do try to change the world? You keep saying you've set up countermeasures to force the world into peace, but what exactly?" He says as he sits himself up and sighs, even if Kaisen was right about him dreaming and wanting to aim high, he still should've been cautious. If he didn't go looking for his teammate and let him stay in the other village, then he probably wouldn't have died. Kazemaru wouldn't have perished with him. He'd be alive and Hanzo, Tavian, and himself could've driven out Kumo, things would've changed for the better.



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Sovngarde Awaits

 

[Sorgaren]

The Town Taunts Hadou

""

Ahh...the boy had gotten right to the heart of the matter. And thankfully, it was in a way that Kaisen could clearly answer him. They were dead, after all, so what harm did it do to divulge his plans? "In order for me to properly explain this to you, I'll have to get into more detail with some shinobi you may not have heard of. The first would be Kleine Heiland. When you were alive, he was still a green young man, afflicted with the Nine-Winged Angel, and jaded by the world around him. His violence and anger reached impossible heights, culminating into the destruction of many villages and--eventually--the shinobi world." Kaisen could only grin at his own introspection; the days of his youth were certainly rowdy; he and Kleine had grown up as rivals, clashing in life-and-death battles on more than one occasion. And yet...the two never seemed to kill each other; not fully. "In a way, Kleine and I were always linked. He was the operator who took the spotlight, who took all the hatred of the world and made it his plaything. He was a real machine of destruction; I'll always be a little envious of that. But that matters little to my plan, so I'll move away from that." An older man for sure, reminiscing seemed to be something he delighted in, especially when he spoke of his former partner in crime.

"Another shinobi you may have known is Christian Uzumaki. Possibly the centerfold to my plan, he was the foremost sealing master the world had ever seen. He assisted in many war-ending operations, and was at one point touted to be the 'chosen one', bound to save the world. How foolish." Kaisen's opinion of Christian was rather hit-and-miss. At times, he found himself appreciating the efforts of his former colleague, though at others...he looked upon the accomplishments of the man only with scorn. "Christian was too idealistic; the kind of peace he sought was something accomplished only in fairy tales. The greed and impulse of man will always bring ruin to a kingdom of dreams. And as the lord of that castle, his fall was inevitable."

"And the final part of this plan is--unfortunately--the thorn in my side who wished to see it undone. A man you definitely never met by the name of Lucifer Heiland. Rumor had it that he could read minds, and as such, learned of my plans much more quickly than I'd anticipated. He was what they call a 'Psycho Demon', a genetic mutation found within the Heiland family that gives the user incredible psychic prowess...at a price. In exchange for this power, he was haunted by a visage of evil named Falsalazar. That's a much longer story to tell, so I'll leave the rest of that explanation out for purposes of efficiency." Whoever this 'Lucifer' was, clearly, he'd given Kaisen quite a lot of trouble when it came to setting up his plans. "It matters not, however; Lucifer perished in the Calamity, and my plans went mostly unscathed. I suspect by now that they're reaching fruition."

Taking a deep breath, the aged man had gotten into quite the explanation. But, it was time to start getting into the real fruit of this conversation. "As for the plan...it was actually quite simple. Before my death, I was the head of a coalition meant to execute a certain corrupted, insane dictator. My partner in crime, Kleine, had become corrupted by a dark entity known only as Zhu. My forces--combined with the military might of Christian--tore through his armies and ravaged his kingdom until we reached his chambers. There, what we saw was horrifying; a twisted visage of a man-turned demigod, his human body distorted by the malevolent energies of Zhu. Like an octopus, tentacles extended from his mouth like a Kraken's crown, and a viscous black slime dripped from his body. And yet, he was oddly coherent in that moment. He spoke of a source of power within the shinobi world, one that could be used to ensure peace. It was a piece of this dark god, Zhu; his heart." Another deep breath. Kaisen certainly hadn't done this much talking in quite a while.

"The battle after that conversation lasted days. Even in his corrupted form, Kleine was a viciously powerful adversary. In the battle, I ended up losing the sight in one of my eyes; I was forced to use a taboo technique against him in order to finish the conflict. It was at this point that I beheaded my former friend, my partner in crime. The information he'd given me certainly wouldn't go to waste." A certain anguish lingered in his eyes amidst his explanation; truly, the two had grown together into powerful shinobi, their ideals eventually separating them further down the path. There were some bonds that were just...painful to leave behind. "After learning of the heart, I traveled to the West, to a place where an organization called the Kech Marah once reigned. There, I found the Heart of Zhu. Its dark energies filled the area with an aura of incredible malevolence, but upon further inspection of the chakra, I found it very similar to that of the bijuu. With a fair amount of time left to experiment, I discovered I was able to manipulate this chakra using my sharingan, though faintly; it was rigidly locked by a powerful seal, one that I wasn't able to break on my own. I needed the help of someone much more experienced in the art of sealing than I; I needed Christian Uzumaki." And finally, the pieces were starting to come together. The culmination of his efforts, and his ideology for the world was starting to come to a head.

"When I contacted Christian, I may not have been entirely forward about the nature of the object I wanted him to release. But when I explained that I felt it was for the benefit of the world, for the present and for the future, there wasn't much left to discuss. Christian was always an honorable man, and his intentions were always to serve the betterment of the shinobi world. So of course, he came to my beckoning with little resistance. It was at this point, that I started to realize just how easy this plan would be to execute." The Uchiha looked to the sky, his one blind eye reflecting the light of the moon; his explanation had taken such a long time that day had turned to night. How characteristic; an old man rambling on for hours. "The Heart of Zhu was...sentient. It knew of my intentions, and cloaked its own malignant aura when Christian arrived. Without the evil energy emanating around him, it wasn't difficult for me to convince Christian of the use of the device; I told him that it was used to contain people and Bijuu, and that it's storage was variable and near-unlimited. An infinite, powerful prison for those who sought to do wrong with the world. There was little to argue, and he got to work on breaking the bindings. However..." Kaisen's fists tightened, and his brow furrowed with irritation. "Lucifer decided that was the perfect time to intervene. Arriving at the scene, he tried his hardest to explain the real power of Zhu's heart to Christian, but I was quicker, engaging him in combat so that he couldn't finish the thought. Granted, with the loss of an eye and his advantage of youth, it wasn't a very advantageous battle for me. I repelled him, although my injuries were severe. However, when Christian broke the seal...Zhu's energy leaked out to me, restoring my vitality and healing my wounds. He was within me, feeding me knowledge of a civilization in the west. He gave me the idea of the Calamity, how I could use my Sharingan to fully control his energy, even if only for a brief period. Our conversations were lengthy, and after much contemplation, our plan was sealed." He realized--though--that he'd left something out of the explanation. "I believe I left Christian's fate out of this. After the dark energies started flooding to me, my would-be partner prepared to engage me in battle. However...I wasn't about to kill the man who'd just done me such a service. My Sharingan--empowered with the presence of Zhu--was able to hypnotize him into leaving the area so that I could work uninterrupted. Fortunately, the power had also allowed me to wipe his memory of the incident, leaving Lucifer as my only loose end."

"Regardless of that, my plans were in motion, save for one key final element. Something well-understood between those in the ruling strata is that every rule must have an heir. Given his public sexuality, most commoners didn't believe that Kleine had an heir. But that wasn't true. In a bid of planning from Zhu, he was able to overtake the mind of his new host, and using the powerful body of the Heiland, he was able to take a woman. Kleine had but one heir by birth, and he was centrifugal to my plans." By now, the conversation had gotten quite lengthy, and the older man realized it was probably time to start wrapping things up. "Using the energy of Zhu, I created pockets of natural energy within the shinobi world. These pockets fed not only off the negative emotions of those around them, but also from any and all chakra used within miles of their vicinity. And given that the world was--at that time--in a period of great strife, you can understand how this energy quickly came to a head. By the time this happened, I was already well away in the West, setting up the rest of my plans." Finally, he was at the summit. The final culmination of his grand scheme.

"See, the West is a place of great technological innovation. The inhabitants of that continent have very little chakra, and thus rely on different mechanisms to emulate the performance of shinobi. Before my own death, I ensured two things would happen in the West. That the son of Kleine understood his role, and that he would quickly come to lead the Western Continent using his natural superiority over the masses. And that my own descendants would travel back to the shinobi continent, asserting their developed power and dominance over the remaining shinobi, putting themselves into a position of power on the shinobi continent." This was all fine and dandy, but there was one final piece missing. How would his descendants come back and reassert their power in a fully developed nation? "It was around this time that the calamity happened. The pockets of natural energy were filled to bursting, creating viciously powerful storms of natural energy that tore the shinobi continent to pieces. While I and my descendants--as well as Kleine's lineage--were safe in the West, the shinobi world's population had gone nearly extinct. I lived long enough to impart these plans into the next generations of the Heilands and Uchiha, as well as one final gift; Zhu. The god inhabited the minds of the Heiland descendants, waiting patiently until the proper vessel came along."

And here the were; the finale. "Once that proper Heiland descendant rules the West, my descendants--those who ventured back to the shinobi world after the Calamity had already finished destroying the continent--would be in positions of power in the shinobi system, clearing an easy path for the forces of the Western Continent to enter and unify the shinobi world under an iron banner; peace by occupation, a plan decades in the making, and a collaborative, global effort to ensure that shinobi will never fall on the same destructive path that they once had." But how this would happen was still up in the air. "Western civilians would then integrate the shinobi into their way of life, showing them the ways of a peaceful, advanced society. With superior numbers and technology, the West will put an end to conflict by forcing the Shinobi to submit."

This plan was--of course--referring to modern day happenings. Though the shinobi would come to learn this in time, it was the machinations of Hysteria Heiland, and Uchiha Eiji that had sparked this revolution. The battles to come would last years, and many treasured friends, and hated enemies would die in the conflicts and struggles the shinobi endured to earn their freedom. However, one thing was to be for certain; no one would ever take the liberties of the shinobi without one hell of a fight.

it was with this ideology that certain names went down in the history of the Shinobi world forever.

Uchiha Eiji
- Assisted the UAF in the combined takeovers of Otogakure and Kumogakure. A descendant of Kaisen Uchiha, and the conspirator responsible for all clandestine UAF operations in the shinobi world. In the midst of the UAF's final battle, Uchiha Eiji was killed by Katherine Strehovsky after revealing his status as a double agent.

Kuhaku Strehovsky
- During the final UAF conflict, Kuhaku and Katherine were undergoing clandestine operations to destroy the enemy forces from within. Upon learning of Eiji's status as a double agent, the pair was ambushed, Kuhaku suffering a fatal blow by Eiji in order to save Katherine. Later hailed as the hero who saved Otogakure.

Katherine Strehovsky
- After the death of her brother, Katherine engaged Eiji and the remaining UAF forces viciously. Her command of the shinobi at her side earned them a well-deserved victory, with the final result of the battle being her sword embedded in her former Sensei's heart, a final justice served to Eiji for the death of her brother. Later, Katherine would go on to be known as a hero of the revolution, and a unifying force between Otogakure and Kumogakure after the sacrifice of Enma Yamamoto.

Enma Yamamoto
- Known throughout the Cloud Village as an aggressive and oathbound leader, Enma was the first on the battlefield when times got tough, though consequentially, this straightforwardness led to his death at the hands of the UAF's administrator. Fortunately, his sacrifice revealed a key weakness in the enemy's forces, allowing Kiyoko and Lillian to take charge and pierce the heart of the UAF, driving them away from Kumogakure indefinitely. Hailed now as the Savior of Kumogakure.

Kiyoko Nakiri
- During the war, Kiyoko's actions were very calm and calculated. She would dance around when the Administrator wasn't looking, taking advantage of their partnership to find and expose weaknesses in the UAF's military infrastructure. After Enma's sacrifice, she and Lillian were able to finish off the enemy, defeating a weakened Administrator and all of his airships with a work of genius. Using the airship that Ren once treasured, they rammed into the line of airships like a bowling ball, leaving only a mountain of flames and molten rubble in the wake of what used to be the world's most powerful armada.

These--as well as many others--would go down in history as pivotal figures to the near-endless conflict of the shinobi world. When the Heilands finally came into play, it was that conspirator that would finally put the issue to rest. Having become one of the Enemies, Lucifer Heiland worked diligently in the mind of his new host, seeking to right the wrongs of Kaisen and his brother, eventually steering the world back to a path of its own decision. Having righted the wrongs of the Heiland family, Lucifer left the consciousness of his host, fading into obscurity as a shadow history would likely never remember.