Kapitel 66: Conclusion of War
The War Council was in utter silence, unlike the event where the utter decimation of Tri-allied Forces into the Uzushiogakure was announced by the Uzushiokage— Ruuji Uzumaki. And many schemes were brought to light in that very second.
Konoha was cornered not only by other shinobi villages but also by the daimyos which gave Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri enough time to prepare and move their forces. Iwa brought the men, Kiri funded the invasion with enough men and transportation while Kumo took the greatest risk by having the Raikage himself lead the charge. Of course, in the event of a successful invasion, Raikage would have earned the greatest following Iwa and Kiri.
But... it was a drowning failure. Only the Third Raikage survived... and it was revealed that Iwa had another good amount of shinobi preparing to invade Kumo. Yet, things happened too quickly and the Raikage, boasting unrivaled speed, found the open scheme and decimated half the Iwa slaves forced into the war, and made the other half retreat... alone! That man alone killed 1500!
But that's not all. Hanzo openly condemned the three Villages for offering Uzumaki members. Now that the cat was out of the bag, Hanzo who still hadn't been paid his share for opening the borders of the Land of Rain jumped at the chance when the Third Hokage saw an opportunity and proposed another monetary transaction and the war zone of Land of Rain was suddenly in support of Konoha and forced every other shinobi out... before forcing Konoha out of its borders, too.
Truly, nobody could be trusted in war.
But... the tensions hadn't dropped. All eyes now turned to Uzu who still continued to keep to themselves and if they previously avoided communication by saying they needed no hand in the war, now, they outright crippled the messengers sent in their direction and destroyed any probing team sent with extreme prejudice. Even Hiruzen's messengers, got a better half of the treatment— pure silence.
It was made clear that Uzumaki would retrieve fully and being the sealing maniacs as they were... the clan of redheads was fully self-sufficient. But... How did they have a Jinchuriki?
Still, the grand scheme that led to the second war in the first place was utterly foiled. Suna, itself, retreated to the desert once the village realized that they were being used to keep Konoha occupied.
However, now Kumo had no reason to go to war. Kumogakure and Kirigakure remained unchanged with tiny damages... yet, it was Iwa and Suna that suffered the most.
Right now, Hiruzen looked at everyone, a slightly mature Tsunade included, who attracted attention from everyone for a few reasons.
"We have received requests of truce from Suna and Iwa," Hiruzen began as he immediately heard multiple scoffs, a notable glower from Inuzuka matriarch, but by now everyone was aware how fickle things and more importantly, life, were without strength.
"Shikudo-san, if you will," Hiruzen looked at the Nara Clan Head sitting next to him.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," looking positively tired, the Jonin Commander began, "Over the year of this war, Konohagakure has lost a total of 221 Chunins and 89 Jonins. Aside from them, casualties include 209 Chunins and 96 Jonins are still in recovery. Of them, 44 Chunins and 11 Jonins are expected to take early retirement due to the nature of their wounds."
"But given the reports, Sunagakure have faced almost double the loss. Our skirmishes against Kumo in Land of Hot Water have been the bare minimum at best. It is clear now that Kumogakure was primarily part of this war to raid Uzushiogakure. Kumo also has yet to send any news regarding peace efforts but given how Land of Rain has started to mobilize men to target any foreign shinobi, it is clear that we either go to war with Amegakure or keep the war within our own borders."
"Suna and Iwa wish to cease hostilities and are willing to pay reparation to a certain extent but nothing will be concrete until Kumo does the same. Letters from the Daimyo suggest that the Lords of Lightning, Wind, and Earth are quite dissatisfied. Yet, it wouldn't affect us for some time."
"What is the extent of reparations discussed until now?" Aburame Leader questioned.
Shikudo closed his eyes and sighed, already expecting outrage as he muttered, "Iwa proposes a settlement of 10 million ryo and Suna is willing to pay 5 million ryo."
After the moment's silence, the War Council descended into a cocktail of slamming tables in indignation, growling, groaning, angered laughs, and death threats but...
Once all settled, they knew that reparation was just a glorified term, really. What, should they go to war again if not satisfied?
On official records, Konoha started the war in the first place and that is the reason why the losers of the war, the Daimyos of other nations, acted so sourly. Sure, Konoha had the strength to go to the war but... could Konoha's upper management send shinobis to war that was at the cusp of ending just because of reparations that they wouldn't have gotten in the first place aside from injured and retired veterans?
No.
Discontent was evident on everyone's faces.
{A/N: This is one of the reasons why I never understood why the fuck Hiruzen got pushed around during the Hyuga incident when the evidence was so overwhelming.}
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Aside from Kumogakure who eventually retreated but never answered to a truce or paid up, the hostilities ceased eventually. But things simply couldn't return to normal as easily. Many lives were affected but... things were far better in Konoha than in other villages. Should their plans succeed, only Suna would have been the butt of this war but things didn't turn out to be this simple.
Iwa now had its own problems not only within the village but also with the giant known as the Earth Daimyo. For all intents and purposes, a shinobi village could take out Daimyos... but while Shinobi Villages may be considered a concentration for growth of chakra and its practices, Daimyo themselves cultivated their own forces that guarded the royalty.
In fact, the shinobi village was just the highly militarized variant of a chakra-utilizing institution. Even Land of Fire had a famed temple full of monks that would give many Jonin a run for their money and would serve Daimyo of Fire and protect them.
Similar religious and cult-like factions were controlled and funded directly by the Daimyos and this, in itself, kept many Shinobi Villages on their toes, too.
But... none of this concerned Kai. The war wasn't one since an actual war didn't really happen. Unlike the first shinobi world war that saw deaths of kages... this felt unimaginably anti-climatic and he blamed Uzu!
Still, the war had an impact on his life in a different manner.
First of all, Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan grew to be a massive pain in the ass. He much preferred Tsume who liked to do her own thing, chill with Kuromaru and then join him for snacks or something while lazing and admiring his grind. That's good.
Yahiko, the utterly greedy cunt wanted to be taught everything even if EVERYTHING phased out of that pretty little head of his.
Nagato had also grown somewhat intolerable. Why? Because he actually was capable of learning everything and thus, it stoked his desires. Kai could still sense a flicker of discontent within Nagato, not with anyone but his situation itself. All of it, however, would vanish when the greater of the irritating redhead would bounce around and promise Nagato the world by saying she would teach him everything! Pfft, as if. Kushina herself had to consult Kai at times to understand a few things or Tsunade.
Finally, Konan... was tolerable. Hell, he got a nifty grind for a day because of her.
[Origami (5/5): The art of paper folding.]
But... she took shine to Origami a little too much, saying that this is the only thing she remembered about her mother... sad, but why would Kai, as an orphan, really feel melodramatic for another orphan?
But that kind of words, and her amber eyes wide with hope for affection got a real reaction out of Mikoto who didn't let go of Konan for an entire day and kept on stroking the pleased bluenette's head.
When Kai tried this by saying he wished he could remember his dead mother by kissing Mikoto, he got a Sharingan glare.
Not. Cool.
That's discrimination against orphans of varying circumstances!
But the most notable shift was Orochimaru's increasing distance. Kai didn't know what happened but the man packed his shit and left the hospital. Even in the rare moment, Kai did meet him, he sensed no negative emotions. In fact, Orochimaru never felt happier.
Good for him.
Tsunade, meanwhile, used every bit of her connections to investigate who was after Senjus within the village. If she first suspected Danzo, then the situation of the three villages and the Uzumaki really gave her a healthy doubt that there may actually be spies behind this.
But the conclusion of war meant that Tsunade had no reason to keep the civilians she once called back. But this would be a lengthy process. Tsunade would need to help utilize a lot of funds to set up a few lines of businesses again and help the civilians create a good cover. This time, however, she kept the information about these individuals to herself and made it clear to the Hokage that she would only give him the information at the time of an S-ranked emergency which was reasonable enough. But of course, this task itself would take her a long time.
Finally, Jiraiya...
Kai was said genuinely sad that Jiraiya's first book— Tale of a Gutsy Ninja— sunk to the bottom of the literary market.
But not to take defeat lying down, Jiraiya instead packed his stuff and left the village to travel for some time, leaving Kai with a short inheritance of a stack of magazines. The next day, Minato contacted Kai and gave the youngling his share of the inheritance, too. Kai didn't care, it was Minato's loss after all.
And as if things coming to a full circle...
It was this inheritance that finally shifted Yahiko's annoyance, Nagato's interests, and Nawaki's pent-up frustrations.
As a Legacy Guardian... it was his job to see that his peers were on the path.
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A/N: Aaannnddd that's a wrap~! The first volume— A Maid's Grooming Rise— has come to an end. The next volume will kick up with the time skip I talked about and things are already changing. The second war went on for years but this time ended in a year and Uzu is still safe, yay!
Anyway, look forward to the next volume: Maid in Troll
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Shoutout to Danny, Jon M, James25 ma, Strange Loop Sleuth, Dicky Wongsonegero, Kaiseth, Glenn McDowell, Hedgeboar, Matthew Rogers, DavidJ, Austin Roberts, and Yahya Mokheimer!!
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