30 Kumogakure and Amegakure Happenings

AN: Tomorrow another chapter, let's give it more power stones to recover in the rankings!

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Kumogakure was the hidden village of the Land of Lightning and was founded by the First Raikage after the Warring States period. The village is located in a range of tall mountains and is literally hidden in the clouds. The Raikage works in a large blue structure built into the tallest mountain. The standard attire for Kumo shinobi consists of a long, grey top that gathers just at the waist to give a sash-like appearance, with a matching colored bottom. Over this, they wear white, one-strapped flak jackets and arms as well as shin guards. Many Kumogakure ninjas use Lightning Release jutsu.

The Land of Lighting had by far the most coastline out of any other major nation. And it was the most useful one, facing three other major nations in the world. That's why their trade was booming and they were really hard to invade. Kirigakure was also surrounded by water, however, it was an island with a much smaller population. Therefore, despite similar circumstances, they were not as strong as the Kumogakure.

Kumogakure itself was made from very steep mountains and then buildings on top of them with bridges high above connecting everything together. This just showcased Kumogakure's technological level perfectly, as it was always very hard to build on such heights near real clouds. It added another reason why Kumogarakure was so unconquerable, just how is someone supposed to invade those steep hills and mountains?

The Land of Lighting was also located further from any other great nation. That always gave them an opportunity to develop in safety while others fought in the past. There were also three to five smaller countries in between them and the next big nation while the others had only one small country in between them with an exception of the Iwagakure which was again an island. They also had only one small land entry point which connected them to the rest of the continent, again, making them even harder to invade. Their technological and military might were very advanced.

They were leading researchers of the harmony between chakra and science. By harvesting their own Lighting Release they could create electrical power. That know-how is put to practical use as the source of power for vehicles such as ships and, among other things, for means of communication. They also have a world-leading lighting teleportation array that could teleport the Raikage, all over the continent. They were also currently working a large lighting canon that could reach the Moon.

They were also very socially cohesive as they had no known cases of clan genocides happening in the past as Konohagakure and Kirigakure did, nor any S-class rogue ninja, like those two, in addition to Iwagakure, had in the past as well. They had the second strongest tailed beast, the Eight-Tails, in their possession, and a way to control it perfectly. They had monstrous shinobi like Kinkaku and Ginkaku in the past.

Kumogakure also had a larger army of shinobi than Konohagakure despite being weaker in overall population numbers than them. They were a very proud country and militarism was their nation's most important ideology. They feared no one, not even Konoha, as seen by how they killed their Second Hokage, tried to kidnap their Jinchuriki during times of peace, and tried to steal their Byakugan. All of that made them currently the second-strongest great shinobi village in the minds of the world. And currently, they even attempted to challenge the Konoha for the number one title.

The Raikage's Office was located in the tallest tower of the village and had the kanji for "Lightning" on the front. It also has a boxing bag and a painting with the kanji for "muscle" across the chair where the Raikage sits. The Fourth Raikage has a tendency of bursting out of the windows and walls, rather than using the doors, something that Mabui‎, his assistant, reprimands him for. Raikage himself was the personification of the whole village's ideology of martial arts passion and militarism.

A has dark skin with a large muscular build, whitish blond hair combed back, a small mustache, and a goatee. His face had pronounced cheekbones and tear troughs under his eyes, and a prominent crease across his forehead. He wore a white haori without a shirt underneath and the traditional Raikage hat.

He was stern, outspoken, and decisive. He believed that actions and strength mean everything and that ninja should never compromise or bow down in front of each other. Similarly, he viewed jinchuriki not as individuals, but as tools of villages that have no right to speak for themselves. He also launched many shameless acts, such as kidnapping and stealing secrets from other villages, and supported going back on promises to build forces where every other village agreed to reduce them in the past, viewing that as an advantage.

However, despite his militant demeanor, he also had quite an emotional side, his short temper and eagerness can cause him to act recklessly without regard to certain matters in his anger outbursts.

Alongside him, in the room was a man named Darui as well. He was also a fairly tall, dark-skinned man with a slightly bulbous nose, black eyes that usually looked bored, and shaggy, white hair which covered his left eye. He wore a high-collared, sleeveless uniform with loose-fitting pants, bandages on his wrists, and the one-strap-over-one-shoulder flak jacket of a Kumogakure shinobi.

Darui was currently the strongest jonin inside the Kumogakure, he was once a student of the legendary Third Raikage, learning the Kumogakure's secret technique Black Lightning from him, one of the hardest techniques to learn. And not only the strongest, but he was also the second in command of the whole village as the current Raikage considered him his right-hand man. He even constantly advised him on many different things. After all, he was the student of the man's father.

Twp days already passed by since Neji's astounding actions at Konoha. Although Konoha and Hyuga clans then gave it their all to try and contain the news from spreading, it was still not hard to find by the other great ninja villages who had spies all over each other. At first, Raikage burst into tears, from laughing, once he got the news, of how Konoha, their biggest rival, lost such a capable shinobi. But then he turned silent and serious once he remembered that in fact, his own village previously caused that incident when the father of the rebel Neji died for no reason years ago.

Out of fear for potential revenge by such a declared S-class shinobi rebel, the Fourth Raikage called in Darui, his closest subordinate and the man who also had a fateful encounter with Neji a year ago.

"Darui, just how was he strong a year ago when you lost to him? Did you find anything special about him at that time?", Fourth Raikage sighed and eventually asked the stunned younger man who sat across from him after finishing telling him about that incident inside of Konoha as well.

Previously, during a mission, the two of them clashed one-on-one and Darui lost and had to flee. It left quite a profound impact on him as Neji was more than ten years younger than him at that time.

Ever since the invasion Orochimaru launched of Konoha, nearly two and a half years ago, and Konoha weakened even more than before, losing a Hokage and many other shinobi and infrastructure, the Fourth Raikage started occasionally giving out missions to his shinobi to go inside the smaller countries in between themselves and Konoha, even the ones previously inside Konoha's sphere of influence, and pressure them by exerting their own influence and strength, so as to take over them as their own spheres of influence next from Konoha. They felt like they deserved it as their village's ideology was always that the bigger fists spoke in the Ninja War, and they had the stronger one than Konoha at that time, thanks to both their development and Konoha's weakness.

But, on one such mission, the strongest jonin of their entire village, Darui, encountered and lost against a fifteen-year-old Neji Hyuga, who was at that time only a chunin to make matters worse. It was also a mission that launched Neji to become a jonin later, while it devasted Darui of the Kumo. He could barely flee for his life at that time, or else he would've died right in that small country.

At that time, Darui was already a Middle Kage level shinobi, so both he and the Raikage knew at that time that Neji was at least a Late Kage level ninja. It was also a part of the reason why they decided against an invasion of Konoha as well. They had overall numbers, but not enough elites. They were shocked once again at Konoha's speed of producing geniuses over and over like a factory. Konoha was the strongest country in the world in regard to elite ninjas without a doubt.

Therefore, from then on, after experiencing such shame, with the blessings and a lot of free time given by Raikage, Darui started working day and night, attempting to do the impossible and create the Black Lighting Release Chakra Mode. Something that no Kumo ninja previously managed to do, not even the previous Raikage, not even the Third Raikage, one of the strongest beings in history.

"No, at that time, he was nearly not as powerful as your report stated... Such a speed of growth... I'm shocked...", Darui replied despondently, 'I'm getting further and further away from him, not any closer...', Ever since that time, even without Neji knowing, he considered him his first rival and the target to surpass. After all, Darui was personally trained by the strongest Raikage in history, the Third Raikage, and he never knew any defeat when since he was little, he was always undefeated, 'I still didn't master the Black Lighting Chakra Armour even for a little bit...', Darui clenched his fists.

"I agree. And we shouldn't rejoice at Konoha's misfortune now! Who knows if he'll come for us now or in the future!", Raikage gritted his teeth and slapped the table in front of him. But, he was not the one to back out from a fight. If Neji comes, then Raikage would welcome him and fight to the end.

At that time, they didn't get anything back in return but they created such a potential powerful enemy. Although, they were proven to be right in the end in regards to Byakugan's strength and potential. However, what use was it, when they were later duped by Konoha in those negotiations, getting only a useless branch member, Neji's father, whose Byakugan couldn't be extracted? If they knew about this, then they would've fought for Hiashi harder in those negotiations to the fullest.

"How is your development of that Chakra Mode going?", Raikage finally hoped for some good news. If Darui managed to learn it, then they would not have to worry about anything in the future. He would be even stronger than him at that time, probably an invincible peak Kage-level shinobi. Darui was already decided by him to be the next Kumogakure's Raikage after he steps down later.

The so-called Black Lighting was created in the past by the First Raikage who used it as his sole technique during his life. It combined ordinary Lighting Release with Yin Release in some secret way. It made his lighting way faster and more deadly by mixing it in with some powers of his imagination. It was made out of his sheer will to become stronger in his life despite being born physically weak. It was their second national secret technique alongside the Lighting Chakra Mode.

The First Raikage was physically weak so he created and used the Black Lighting ninjutsu, while the Second Raikage created and used only the Lighting Release Chakra Mode as he was not gifted enough in the Yin Release to use both. The Third Raikage used both of them, and he brought the Lighting Release Chakra Mode to unprecedented highs. The Fourth Raikage couldn't learn the Black Lighting Release as well, but, he created a personal nintaijutsu style. Darui was now actively working on fusing these two techniques together. The Third Raikage tried it as well, but he didn't succeed. "It still isn't going anywhere, Boss... But I'll try my best!", Darui suddenly replied with big determination.

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The Amegakure was a small but highly industrialized minor hidden village located in an unnamed country. As its name suggested, it rained almost constantly in Amegakure and the surrounding area, in the past, hence the name. All the water seemingly ended in a large lake that surrounded the village. The village was full of high-rise, cyber-punk-like buildings, something unique in the world.

This village sadly constantly served as a battleground for both proxy and real wars between the three great ninja villages, in the past. As it was surrounded by them and they didn't want to clash inside their own borders and destroy their own infrastructure and have their civilians as victims.

Because of Amegakure's location right between three of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, and since it had frequently served as a battleground during the various ninja wars, making most of its population war refugees with an abnormally high population of homeless, orphaned children. Amegakure has adopted a heavy isolationist policy because of this, leading to the village's defenses being abnormally impenetrable. To be admitted to the village, visitors, even those coming for Chunin Exams held in Amegakure, must go through a number of security checks and are under constant surveillance during their stay. It was a perfect hiding place for a big secret organization.

The secret organization was the Akatsuki, the biggest and strongest mercenary organization in the whole world. Who also strangely invested a large chunk of their profits into the village helping it.

Their isolationist policy also led them to become very technologically advanced. Since they had no one to rely on, they had to rely on themselves for everything, hence the technology. Hanzo The Salamander was the final catalyst for their whole current technological development as he introduced a full dictatorship focused on industrialization and inward development. And due to their rather limited space, they had to resort to creating those large high-rise buildings as their living spaces. Also, as it constantly rained in Amegakure, they also had to be made out of metal.

Amegakure was led for many years by Hanzo, a notoriously powerful shinobi. During the Second Shinobi World War, he slaughtered an entire Konoha platoon, sparing only the young Sannin whom he even named that way. During the Third Shinobi World War, a group called Akatsuki began advocating for peace between the warring Konoha, Iwa, and Suna, Hanzo interpreted this as a threat to his rule. Claiming to be interested in cooperating with Akatsuki, Hanzo, who was also manipulated by Danzo in some way, who himself feared the danger of such an alliance to Konoha, ambushed Akatsuki's three primary members and attempted to kill them all. After Akatsuki's leader, Yahiko, died, Nagato retaliated and slaughtered all of Hanzo's men, though Hanzo himself escaped.

At some point after the end of the war, a civil war broke out in the village to remove Hanzo from power. Led by an individual known only as "Pain", the rebel faction symbolized their rejection of Hanzo by placing a horizontal slash across their forehead protector. With Pain's near-godly power and rumors that he was multiple people, Hanzo, and his forces were overthrown, with Pain being the one to personally kill Hanzo. Pain then went on to kill anyone even remotely connected to Hanzo, from close family to distant acquaintances, so that none would ever emerge to take revenge. Despite this, loyalists to Hanzo still emerged from time to time, though all were crushed by Pain.

Pain became Amegakure's new leader, revered as a god by the populace because of his contributions during the civil war and almost god-like powers. None ever saw Pain directly after that, his decrees were instead communicated to Ame's citizens by his "Angel", Konan, who came to be revered almost as highly as Pain himself. The only thing that Ame's citizens could conclusively say about Pain was that it only rained on Sundays or when he had to be away from the village.

Ame was so secretive and isolated that the knowledge of civil war was not common throughout the ninja world, and news of Pain's victory was completely unknown to the point that other villages believed Hanzo to still be in charge. Pain then used Amegakure as his primary base for operations.

With Yahiko's dying breath he entrusted the pursuit of peace to Nagato. Nagato, grieved by Yahiko's death, came to believe that the world would never willingly consent to peace and that Akatsuki's previously pacifist approaches were therefore futile. He concluded that the only way the world would turn away from its constant warfare would be to experience such catastrophic death and destruction that it could never again stomach the idea of conflict.

Intending to be the one to show these horrors to the world, Nagato began using the alias "Pain" and formed the Six Paths of Pain, into which he integrated Yahiko's corpse so that he could symbolically continue leading Akatsuki. Nagato sought out Obito, under the guise of Madara Uchiha, and accepted his earlier offer of support, which he provided in secret, that same offer that Yahiko also ejected many years ago.

The Pain's Tower was the tallest tower in Amegakure and was also Pain's and Konan's current personal residence. It had four humanoid faces on each side and was connected to two smaller towers. The tongue of the face that Pain sat on, looking out over the city, had Rinnegan-like eye patterns and was depicted with a pipe and piercings, with its tongue sticking out. Somewhere inside is a chamber hidden behind a solid wall where the Six Paths of Pain's bodies were stored when not in use. At the base of the tower, members of Pain's forces delivered bodies. Its height allows Nagato to transmit chakra signals to the Paths regardless of their position in the city. The tower also houses a morgue, enabling Nagato to easily replace his Paths in the event a body was rendered unusable.

On that highest rooftop, four peculiar people, or better-said beings, currently stood up. They were the Nagato's main Pain Body, Konan, Obito Uchiha, and Zetsu. It was very rare for them to meet like that. They were currently the members with the highest reputation inside the Akatsuki. Nagato was a formal leader, however, all of the other members also knew about Obito, alias Tobi, as a really pivotal member, whose say in the organization even faintly came closer to that of the Pain himself.

They all came here, or more precisely said, Obito and Zetsu came there specifically to talk about two different very important matters regarding the official launch of their plan to capture Tailed Beasts and Neji Hyuga with Nagato and Konan. They all wore standard Akatsuki cloaks and rings.

Pain's body had spiky orange hair as Yahiko did while he was alive and many facial piercings. His expression appeared robotic. Konan had short, straight blue hair with a bun, grey eyes with lavender eye shadow, and a white labret piercing. Konan's eyelashes were in a diagonal line at the bottom corner of her eyes. She also wore a large light blue paper flower clipped on top of her bun.

Obito, still masquerading as both Tobi and Madara Uchiha, to various people, wore a strange orange mask with a spiral pattern focused around his right eye. The two Zetsu in one body together beside him were easily distinguished by the two Venus flytrap-like extensions that emerged from their sides, enveloping their head and upper body as a shell, which they were able to open and close. Beneath these extensions, White Zetsu had short green hair and a single yellow eye. The right half of his body was covered by Black Zetsu, whose leg was originally White Zetsu's own right leg.

Nagato lived with his parents on the outskirts of Amegakure. Sometime later, during the Second Shinobi World War, Nagato and his parents took shelter in their home to avoid the fighting going on around them. One day, two Konoha shinobi broke into their home looking for food, and Nagato and his parents tried to sneak out unnoticed. When they were discovered, his parents attacked the shinobi so that Nagato could escape. The Konoha ninja killed his parents in self-defense and, upon realizing they were only civilians, tried apologizing to Nagato, who in rage killed them with his eyes.

After burying his parents, Nagato, now an orphan, was forced to leave home and begin wandering in search of food and shelter. With resources scarce due to the ongoing war, no one he met would help him until Nagato, who had collapsed from hunger, was found by Konan and Yahiko, orphans like himself. They banded together, acquired food to survive through any means, and shared dreams of a future where they were in charge and could use their power to eliminate war. Though, that dream was shattered once Hanzo made Yahiko kill himself by inserting himself into his own kunai.

Nagato's real body had crippled legs ever since that clash with Hanzo and his forces. Moreover, due to the constant use of Rinnegan, Nagato's body now looked almost skeleton-like. Therefore, he never appeared personally outside, only sending his Deva Path clone of Yahiko to the outside world.

Yahiko's death ultimately convinced Nagato that his idealistic philosophies about achieving peace were foolish. The world would never willingly end the cycle of death and hatred it had operated on for so long. Only through direct experience of war and all the losses and agonies it brought could anyone truly desire peace. Intending to personally bring that level of despair to the world, Nagato took on the name of "Pain". He now wanted to create another great war, after stealing out all the nine Tailed Beasts, creating a kinjutsu secret weapon of mass destruction, using it on one party of the war, bringing fear to the whole world, forcing them to obey him and wage no wars in the future ever again. In a sense, giving them all some short-term pain for later eternal peace and happiness.

On the other side of the room was a man with an equally tragic story. Because he grew up without knowing his parents, as well as being the least talented Uchiha in recent history, Obito's childhood was marked by dreams of being acknowledged. This motivated him to become a ninja so that he could, in turn, become Hokage and have the entire village finally recognize him. When Rin acknowledged him regardless of everything, Obito fell in love with her and aimed to earn her love in addition to the Hokage title. He was also a very strange Uchiha, the one who was not chained by the Curse of Hatred, and instead was filled with love and wanted to protect people previous to him very much and even the whole Konoha by becoming Hokage. In fact, he was so kind, that he couldn't reject any request for help, leading him to help even ordinary village grandmas all day.

However, everything shattered once the Third Great Shinobi War started and he was forced to go into the battlefield as a child soldier, people dying everywhere around him. Even he nearly died at that time while trying to save Kakashi from falling boulders, only to be crushed by them instead.

Then after Rin's death, Obito's determination and idealism were finally shattered for good. He became calmer and more focused, no longer caring about his village, his friends, or even his name, all of them being worthless parts of a miserable world that had forced Rin to die at the hands of a person she loved. From then on, he fully committed himself to his savior Madara's Eye of the Moon plan. He now wanted to help the whole world, not just to become Hokage and help only Konoha.

The Eye of the Moon Plan was created by Madara Uchiha as his way to bring peace to the world. The goal was to project the Infinite Tsukuyomi on the moon in order to trap the entire world in a genjutsu dream, where everyone would be in a state of bliss, in their personal ideal fantasies, also saving mankind from destroying itself. However, Obito did not trust Madara and as such had no intention of ever bringing him back to life. He would follow Madara's plans, but it would be himself, not Madara, who became the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki required for performing the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

He wanted to prevent anyone from reliving the same fate as him in the future, therefore instead of protection, he now acted for prevention. He thought that the current world was Hell and that nothing in it mattered anymore. That the only way for everyone to be truly happy was to create another world. And every kind of sacrifice along the way there was for the greater good. He was the one who would save everyone, even if they disagreed, they just didn't know what was best for them.

Both Nagato and Obito were quite similar in a way, sharing the same dream. However, their means were quite different. That's why they didn't trust each other fully, working together just out of necessity before they backstabbed each other after getting all of the tailed beasts required for their goals. Additionally, due to their world-class strengths and backgrounds, both were kind of egoistic, both of them wanted to be the one to personally bring eternal peace to the world and end all wars, "What are we going to do about that Neji Hyuga, Nagato?", Obito finally spoke after a long silence.