Armistice !

Day 371

The time had come to decide what was to become of this long-running conflict.

All the elemental nations were very much affected by the damage of the war. Beyond the deaths which numbered in the tens of thousands, the balance of these nations was completely destabilized. Uzushio had been wiped off the map, Suna was under siege as was Iwa, and Kumo had suffered an internal rebellion led by the golden and silver brothers. Strangely, the latter had been found dead in a strange way.

Of all the Kage who had participated in the conflict, only the Nidaime Kazekage was still alive. All the other Nidaime had finally perished in this war in which it was almost impossible to know who was the enemy of whom.

Only two countries, Hi No Kuni and Mizu No Kuni could still claim to continue the conflict because they had managed to gain the upper hand over their enemy. But it would have been completely suicidal to try to attack the hidden villages, as the loss of life would have been far too great.

The most logical and sensible solution was the armistice.

Tobirama having clearly promoted Hiruzen Sarutobi as his successor, the new Sandaime Hokage decided to propose a truce to his enemies. He had messages of peace sent to the various elemental nations.

However, peace had a price and was only possible under certain conditions imposed by the Kage of the Leaf. Everything had to be done in favour of the country to repair the damage caused by the war.

Kumo had no choice but to accept this armistice since the first peace treaty signed by their late Nidaime Raikage had been found. It was bloodstained, but his signature was on it.

For Suna, this armistice proposal came at the right time. Indeed, the late Mizukage had imprisoned the Kazekage's family as a security measure, thus preventing any attempt at rebellion on the part of the Wind Country.

On the side of Iwa, the signing of the peace treaty was much more bitter as they were forced to accept it. They no longer had any allies, especially as they had not foreseen that Tobirama Senju would destroy Kumo's elite troops with Kinkaku and Ginkaku.

So it was without apparent victory for either side that the First Great Shinobi War ended.

Now the elemental nations were at peace and all had to rebuild. Messages were sent to the four corners of the world so that the world would be aware of the armistice, allowing life to resume, especially economic life between the nations. This was essential as there was a severe shortage of resources and it was vital to react as quickly as possible to provide for the needs of the population before there were internal revolts or even exoduses to other more prosperous countries.

The only country among them to have escaped this terrible human and material disaster was Ta No Kuni. From an external point of view, Ta No Kuni was in a way rewarded for having clearly shown its intentions of neutrality by choosing to pay its neighbours and by forbidding any military access. And the country of the rice fields decided to use this explanation to justify how they had managed to maintain themselves despite the war.

The truth was quite different, but for the moment Ta No Kuni had to act cautiously while keeping its objective secret : to become the largest country of the elemental nations by being the essential platform for trade between nations. The country's fame would continue to spread like a rumour, but it would have to arouse enough interest and curiosity to attract more and more people. In addition, the aim was also to offer work and, above all, a life that was guaranteed to be safe. This would inevitably allow the people who came to them to make the choice to stay.

But as the various countries signed the armistice, each armed troop, or rather what was left of them, returned to their respective villages. The advantages of peace made it possible to move around without fear of being attacked at the bend in the road. And among all these shinobi returning home, Tsunade Senju was one of them.

Along with her team members Orochimaru and Jiraiya, she had participated in many assaults against the enemy, though they often only had small missions without much danger. They were still young to be in the middle of a battlefield and Hiruzen Sarutobi would not have forgiven the loss of his students. So they were somehow spared during the conflict.

As the Leaf shinobi walked through the gates of the village, relief could be read on their faces, they had finally made it home alive. Like everyone else she had made her way home with, Tsunade headed for her clan's neighborhood, the Senju estate. She hoped to be able to find her family and friends, especially since they were the last troop to return to the village.

They had all been assigned to different shinobi troops and she hadn't seen them since the war started. By the time she reached her home, she was so eager to see them again that she ran down the driveway, shouting to signal her arrival.

— "Kaa-chan ! Tou-chan !"

She arrived in front of her house, opened the door hastily and took off her sandals at the entrance. Her voice betrayed her eagerness to hug them.

— "Kaa-chan ! I'm home !" She shouted to indicate that she was there so that they would not fear an unwanted intrusion.

However, the young teenager couldn't imagine for a second what she was about to discover next. Something suddenly caught her attention : the house was completely silent, without any presence of life inside. The furniture was in its place, nothing had changed, it was her home, but she had this strange feeling that something was wrong. Anxiety began to rise little by little in the hollow of the young blonde's stomach when she realised that a thin layer of dust covered the furniture, but also the floor. From the thickness she could clearly see, it could only mean one thing : the house had been empty for a while.

— "Kaa-chan ?" Called the blonde again, her voice unsettled and slightly shaky.

Once again, the silence echoed her own voice. Despite her growing discomfort, she decided to inspect the premises.

The house was definitely empty of its legitimate inhabitants. She decided to go outside and meet other members of her clan so that they could inform her of the whereabouts of her parents.

However, something else struck Tsunade. As she walked through the streets of the estate, the young girl noticed that there was also silence throughout the estate. Only the sound of the wind or the rare birds that flew by gave a little life to the place. It was clear that the Senju quarters were terribly empty. The streets were deserted, the houses closed and empty of their inhabitants. No matter how hard she looked, not a single living soul was present. She didn't see her cousins or her friends... anyone from her immediate or distant family, there was no one.

No one.

It was at that precise moment that she realised that all around her was silence and the absence of life. The young girl understood this terrible truth, the war had probably taken much more than she had imagined.

Her entire clan.

Another reality dawned on her, man's selfishness and vanity had just made her the last Senju in the world.

She would never see any of her people again, and this sad realization shook the young teenager to the core, and she couldn't help but be overwhelmed with grief.

— "Kaa-chan," Tsunade cried softly.

She fell to her knees in the middle of the street, hugging herself. Tears quickly welled up in her eyes and she let the sobs run through her without her being able to hold back, and more importantly, without anyone being able to do anything about it.

She was totally distraught and devastated to realise the obvious fact that she was now the last and only heir of the Senju clan. Wouldn't it have been better if she too had fallen on the field of honour like all those in her family ? At least she wouldn't have had to experience the unbearable pain that gripped her heart and guts.

Tsunade was in such a state of legitimate prostration at this news that she did not feel a figure approaching. She just felt a pair of arms come around her and hold her tight. At first glance, his arms could not have belonged to an older man, they must have belonged to a teenager like her.

The young teenager's head was pressed against the man's chest and as she opened her tear-filled eyes, Tsunade saw a white hair.

— "I'm here Tsunade," Jiraiya whispered in a voice the blonde had never heard from her partner. There was no trace of humor or flirtation, only sincerity. She actually felt less lonely in that moment as she let herself go for the first time into the arms of this boy she thought was just a heartless fool. She and Jiraiya used to bicker all the time, no matter what the subject. But today everything seemed different, there was no trace of teasing or even childishness. It was as if the discovery of the Senju clan's disappearance had changed them from the carelessness of childhood to the responsibility of being adults. She clutched at his clothes and let the grief out in many loud sobs. Jiraiya remained kneeling without flinching, without saying anything... just giving her the silent comfort of that embrace. He was just present and shared her pain.

— "Why ?" Was the first question Tsunade finally asked as her sobs subsided.

— "I don't know, Hime..."

— "Why this damn war !" The blonde cried in grief and Jiraiya only tightened his arms around her. He wanted so badly to be able to take this grief away from her, to numb the heartbreak she was experiencing at this awful realization. His heart ached to hear the pain of the girl he loved. In a way, he understood her pain, but he could not entirely put himself in her shoes. For even though he was an orphan who had never known his parents, he had never known what she was experiencing now : the loss of loved ones.

— "Because adults are stupid," the boy whispered, gently stroking the blonde's hair.

— "If I'd been stronger...," she suggested, so intense was the despair.

— "It's not your fault Hime ! It's not your fault," Jiraiya interrupted, recognizing the first signs of the unnecessary guilt she was about to inflict on herself. "You're a wonderful and very talented girl Hime. You've already done your best in this war... there was nothing more you could have done... you couldn't have known Hime... no one could have predicted this... and...," he said as he searched for the right words to comfort her before being interrupted.

— "If I had been like her... this wouldn't have happened," Tsunade added.

The last of the Senju had had some sort of epiphany as she cried against Jiraiya, one person had popped into her mind, that famous pink haired woman. Why had the image of this woman appeared to her ? No one could explain it, but Tsunade understood that this woman who had eradicated their enemy with the help of her companion embodied everything she herself wanted to be : powerful.

The girl was convinced that if she had had the same skills, she could have saved members of her clan but also those of her village. If she had been much stronger, she could surely have allowed the course of the war to be completely different.

— "What's stopping you from being strong ?" The teenager asked gently.

— "What do you mean ?" Tsunade questioned, pulling away from her comrade's embrace to look him in the eye.

He didn't answer right away, he simply stared at the girl with a look so tender and understanding that Tsunade was turned around, so much so that her heart missed a beat. The teenager slowly and gently placed his thumbs on the girl's cheeks to wipe away the remaining tears.

— "This woman saw a bright future in you, she said it herself, what you are trying to do is admirable. I don't doubt for a moment that you will be perfectly capable... you already have that strength within you Hime, you succeed in everything you do," Jiraiya reassured her with a very thin smile. His voice was unusually calm, he was so casual at this moment that Tsunade wondered if she had misjudged her comrade in all the years they had been teammates.

— "I'm scared Jiraiya," the blonde admitted after a moment.

— "I know you will succeed Tsunade and I will help you become as strong as this woman," Jiraiya comforted with that unwavering certainty in his voice.

— "What's the point of going on without anyone," the blonde sighed as she lowered her eyes, feeling sorrow again at the thought that she would do all of this without any of her family members being able to see what she would accomplish.

— "Tsunade look at me," the teenager demanded softly as he saw the pain the girl was feeling. The girl looked up before looking back into the boy's eyes as he held her in his arms before he continued :

— "You're not alone, you have us, your team, we're here for you... I... I'm here for you Tsunade... I can be your family...," he announced sincerely. Tsunade knew he wasn't lying to her, that he wasn't just saying this to comfort her and ease her current grief. He was promising her in hushed tones that he would always be there for her because she was already everything to him.

Day 390

The war had been over for a month now, the countries were licking their wounds and it was time to take stock, to ask questions and to make assumptions. And that was what was being discussed that evening in one of the districts of Konoha where an assembly was being held in a place dedicated to important meetings concerning the affairs of the village and especially the clan.

— "Gentlemen, if I have gathered you all here tonight, it is because we must address certain points that I have deemed essential to discuss together. As clan leader, I could not ignore the arguments presented to me by one of our own yesterday."

The last Uchiha clan leader who had been appointed after Madara's death looked at the assembly before him. There were still many of them present despite the war. This was due to their Sharingan which had allowed them to suffer the least amount of casualties possible, which had not been the case with the Senju who had paid the highest price during the conflict.

The brown-haired man looked around at all the heads of the families that made up his clan, their faces were closed and hard. This kind of meeting was never a good omen and the tension was palpable in the room, each one looking at his neighbours out of the corner of his eye.

— "I needn't remind you that everything that is said tonight is punishable by death if you reveal to anyone what is going to be discussed," added the leader in a tone that left no doubt about the importance of the subjects to be discussed later. This reminder of the rules made many people wince, as they did not like being reminded of their obligations to the clan.

— "Why is Kagami with us then ? Spat one of them, glaring at the man who remained neutral at the mention of his name.

— "Yes ! Why is he here !? It's common knowledge that Kagami always puts the interests of the village before those of the clan !" Another Uchiha added to echo the first one who had made this remark.

The tension was at its highest in the ranks of the Uchiha who were beginning to heat up even though nothing had been said yet. The clan leader knew that this meeting would be complicated and he couldn't drag it out if he wanted everyone to understand the importance of what was going to be revealed.

— "For it was he who asked to convene the council tonight," the man replied before inviting Kagami to stand up as he himself sat down on the floor.

The young Uchiha who had been one of the Nidaime Hokage's personal students stood up before looking around the assembly. While some clearly had an accusatory look towards him, others were watching him with curiosity while the majority kept their gaze neutral waiting to make up their own minds by listening to what he had to say.

— "It's true, I don't deny the accusations made against me. As you all know, I am a ninja who has always put the village before his family, and I don't hide it. But the last events we have just gone through as well as the elements I have noticed during this conflict have made me think differently. I have come to ask myself this first question : is Konoha really capable of guaranteeing our safety ? And by safety, I mean our individual safety as well as the safety of the entire clan."

All of them, without exception, were looking at the young Kagami attentively as he had just stated his thoughts. The question was far from trivial, and it was very pertinent from the start, for they all knew how the Leaf Village had treated their members since the beginning of time.

Despite the period of peace established at the time of the village's creation, the Uchiha had never really been integrated as a clan within the village. To change this, they had turned their backs on their former leader : the all-powerful Uchiha Madara. But despite this, when he attacked the village anyway, the clan was singled out. And it was known that the Nidaime Hokage did not hold them in his heart, indeed he did not trust them at all.

— "What do you mean ?" Asked Izumi Uchiha, one of Madara's former lieutenants.

— "How come no one asked about the sudden disappearance of Mito Uzumaki ? She lived in the very heart of the village and yet overnight no one hears from her or cares about her. The same goes for Uzushio, how is it possible that this village was completely razed to the ground or rather, how could Konoha have arrived too late to avoid this disaster ? I know, some will tell me that I was wrong to adhere to the ideology of my late master Tobirama Senju, and that is still true ! However, what I can't help but notice is that he failed to keep his commitments, not only to his ally but also to the protection he was supposed to give to a clan heiress such as Mito."

As he spoke, the members of the assembly began to think more intensely about the points he was making. Some of the Uchiha crossed their arms and scowled more and more as their internal thoughts were in turmoil.

— "What are you trying to prove here ?" Asked one of the older Uchiha in the assembly after a moment.

— "Who's to say that Konoha won't do the same thing to the Uchiha clan ? The more time passes, the more I think that maybe Uchiha Madara was right and that we should have followed him..."

— "Who are you ?" A man suddenly asked after standing up and staring at Kagami in amazement.

— "What do you mean ?" Said the young man, who didn't understand his counterpart's question.

— "The Kagami I know could never have made that kind of speech, let alone adhere to Madara's vision that we should take up arms against this village he built," the man said, causing several members of the assembly to shake their heads. "How can you turn your back on us all of a sudden ?"

— "I did not turn my coat as you seem to want to believe. I'm still the same person and without wishing to offend you, I'm not like most of you, navel gazing and feeling superior to the other clans in the village ! No, I'm someone who can see things that most people can't," he said, raising his voice. "I have always been careful to analyse situations, contexts, issues and risks. That's what makes me think more broadly... more broadly than my family and even more broadly than the village itself. And although I am a shinobi, I hate war ! Yes, I hate fighting, especially when the cause stops no further than personal interests. And as some say, yes I protect my village, putting it before my family. But still... still I love my parents, my sister and every member of my clan. And it is also for them... to preserve them that I am willing to overlook many things... like putting my family before the village. And it is by considering all these points that I hope to preserve those I love and eventually one day bring lasting peace."

— "Let's face it," conceded the Uchiha who had asked him the last few questions, "what elements have you gathered to make you change so much ?"

— "So before I answer that question, I would like to ask you another one : who among us would be able to compete with Uchiha Madara ?"

Everyone was surprised by the question, but looking at Kagami's attitude it was a real question that caused many whispers in the assembly. All knew the power of their former leader and all had this evidence on the tip of their tongues.

— "No one," finally said the clan leader who had not reacted since the young man began to speak.

This statement silenced the murmurs and silence suddenly fell on the room, like an icy shower.

— "So who in the world would be able to oppose him ?" Kagami continued, taking advantage of the surrounding silence.

— "Hashirama," a man in the room said sharply.

— "Yes, but Hashirama Senju is dead. And you will agree with me that apart from him, no one we know of is capable of competing with him. So now I'd like to ask you one last question : if we were to face Uchiha Madara all together, do you think we would have any chance of winning ?"

— "What are you getting at, Kagami ?" Izumi asked completely confused by the young man's unanswered questions. The other members of the assembly were in the same state and doubtful looks were exchanged from both sides of the room.

— "What am I getting at ? During the war I had a lot of time to observe, think and analyse what was around me, what people were saying. The first point is that there were many guerrilla wars not only on our territory but also in other countries. Secondly, all these guerrilla wars seemed to be provoked by a duo that nobody ever managed to identify, let alone apprehend. Thirdly, the techniques employed by one of them quickly enabled me to eliminate many candidates who could be these two people wanted by all."

It didn't take long for the clan members to begin to formulate in their minds what this young Uchiha was telling them :

— "Are you implying that..."

— "I'm not implying it, I'm saying it !" Interrupted Kagami who had everyone's attention on his lips.

— "You're not thinking about it, it's impossible !" One of them objected, even though Kagami had given no specific indication that the unthinkable was possible.

— "If it is so unlikely, then answer me. Who in all the elemental nations is capable of doing a Ninjutsu Katon on the scale of a large village ? Who is capable of holding an army at bay by himself ? Who is able to annihilate a city with a single technique ? Just one person is able to do all of the above !"

— "Madara is dead !" One of the members shouted.

— "But as far as I know, no one has ever found our leader's body, so how do we know that Uchiha Madara isn't out there doing what he's always fought for ?"

Kagami paused in what he had just said, for it was like having a sword of Damocles hanging over his head.

— "The reason I called for this special clan meeting is because I wish to protect not only my village, but also my family and my entire clan. For if Madara is behind the destruction of Uzushio and with a single technique he is capable of this feat, what is to stop him from doing the same to Konoha ?"

The silence was such that one could hear everyone's breathing. Minds were focused and searching for answers to everything the young Uchiha had brought up.

— "What are you proposing, Kagami ? If Madara is indeed alive, why hasn't he contacted the clan again ? Why hide ?"

— "Maybe so we can find out for ourselves..."

The meeting went on for almost an hour before it ended, leaving each of the members prey to numerous questions that had few answers. For if indeed their former leader was alive, it was a safe bet that Uchiha or not, all those who had dared to defy him by refusing to follow him would have to pay the consequences. And many of them feared the terrible wrath of Uchiha Madara who was not known for forgiving easily.