An epistolary view of the history surrounding the Land of Rice Paddies.
A Second Dawn (Naruto TL?)
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01: A Place In The Sun
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
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Note: this was originally posted a couple days ago on AH but I barely use that so I figured I would crosspost it here. Assuming I manage to actually stick to doing this, posts will be made roughly concurrently between sites. Never really written this kind of thing before, here's hoping I can keep it up.
"In the twentieth year of the rule of the Lord Ketsuhide of the Land of Rice Fields, a new advisor came to his modest court in the mountains between the land of Fire and the North Sea, the foothills of Lightning Country. The woman claimed to be an exile from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, though she declined to give her true name, calling herself only Madame Serpent. Claiming to have left over disagreements on military policy, she offered her abilities and expertise to Lord Ketsuhide in exchange for his silence on her whereabouts to any agents of the Land of Fire or its shinobi Village. If he gave his word on this, and followed her direction, she promised that his warriors would know no fear and no defeat, propelling Rice Field Country to its rightful place in the sun of world politics.
Lord Ketsuhide, who had long brooded over shames dating from the Third World War nearly a decade before, readily accepted her offer of national rejuvenation, and a finger in the eye of Fire Country besides, who had profited greatly off the war's devastation of the border states. Kumogakure's ninjas had ravaged the countryside and traditional military of Rice Paddy Country in their rush to satisfy their own grudges against Konoha, and Konoha had let them- or, at least, so said popular sentiment. And after the war, merchants and industrialists from Fire Country, such as the enormous Tanzaku Construction Zaibatsu, made a great deal of money from and noise about helping to rebuild the desolated border countries. Konoha's extensive propagandizing of the war as their defense of Kusa's sovereignty only salted the wounded national pride of the feudal and military elites of Rice Paddy Country. To a retrospective view, it comes as no surprise that they believed this new advisor, despite the many, many red flags…"
- from "The Second Dawn: From Rain to Rice Paddy," a popular history book about the Militant Pacifist Movement
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02: Confidence Kills
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"The Shinobi Clans of the former Land of Rice Paddies were well-storied and powerful in their own right, possessed of many hidden techniques. Their fealty to the daimyo was well-cemented in a deeply interconnected web of traditional loyalties, and each clan considered themself to be at his beck and call for levying. They were famed for their strength and loyalty, and the strength of their own mundane retainers, and so peace had long reigned in nominally-neutral Rice Paddy, all through the latter half of the Clan Wars and through the First and Second Great War. The country was well-prepared for any war- any war that happened a hundred years ago, that is.
The great system of alliances pioneered by the Senju-Uchiha bloc, along with the modern centralized command allowed by the Hidden Village System, had upset the old order of the Warring States Period. A state of affairs that the long-untouched and insular Rice Paddy Clans had failed to notice, the various snarled family trees of patriarchs and matriarchs turned toward inward jockeying for influence, secure in their reputation. So when the nebulous wavefunction of the brief Second World War Armistice collapsed, and previously neutral Rice Paddy found itself facing an invasion from neighboring Lightning Country, the Clans took to the borders with a great deal of confidence.
And Confidence, as any chuunin will tell you, Kills."
The great system of alliances pioneered by the Senju-Uchiha bloc, along with the modern centralized command allowed by the Hidden Village System, had upset the old order of the Warring States Period. A state of affairs that the long-untouched and insular Rice Paddy Clans had failed to notice, the various snarled family trees of patriarchs and matriarchs turned toward inward jockeying for influence, secure in their reputation. So when the nebulous wavefunction of the brief Second World War Armistice collapsed, and previously neutral Rice Paddy found itself facing an invasion from neighboring Lightning Country, the Clans took to the borders with a great deal of confidence.
And Confidence, as any chuunin will tell you, Kills."
- From "One Plus Two Makes Three: A Retrospective View Of the Third World War"
03: in the Valley Of Echoes The Lilies Grow
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"The death toll from the Third Great War among the shinobi clans of Rice Paddy Country is hard to pin down - harder than is usual for a Shinobi war, that is. We know that it was great, and devastating, eliminating at least 40% of Rice Paddy's nominal strength, but hard numbers are hard to find, mostly because of Rice Paddy themselves. The decentralized command of the military going into the war meant units were organized along clan lines, and all logistics and other bureaucratic necessities were similarly segregated by clan affiliation. A Jinraku Clan quartermaster could not give supplies to a Shiin clan unit (and with the feud, probably wouldnt even if they could), and a Shiin clan jonin could not give orders to a Fuuma clan squadron (unless they wanted to start a pointless but entertaining fight). As such, each clan maintained its own rosters, paychest, and casualty lists.
This would normally be a mere minor difficulty in establishing a death toll. Collect up the rosters and casualty lists of the various clans, and you have a total number, yes? No. The Rice Paddy clans had gone into the war thinking it would be fairly short and honorable, and so many clan patriarchs had one eye on Lightning and one eye looking for ways they could get one over on their rival clans. Knowing that a certain clan had lost such-and-such an amount of genin, for example, would be very useful when jockeying for influence with the daimyo when the unpleasant duties were finished. So a good many rosters were plumped with false names, or thinned out, to keep any certain measure of the clan's strength from their rivals. (And from historians, who are left scrabbling for primary sources within the disparate bureaucracies that corroborate what names we have.) The only ones who could truly identify the signs and codes that indicate an accurate document would be the clan patriarchs and elders themselves.
And after the formation of the Village Hidden In Sound, consulting them became a starkly less viable option."
Pointless, all pointless
This would normally be a mere minor difficulty in establishing a death toll. Collect up the rosters and casualty lists of the various clans, and you have a total number, yes? No. The Rice Paddy clans had gone into the war thinking it would be fairly short and honorable, and so many clan patriarchs had one eye on Lightning and one eye looking for ways they could get one over on their rival clans. Knowing that a certain clan had lost such-and-such an amount of genin, for example, would be very useful when jockeying for influence with the daimyo when the unpleasant duties were finished. So a good many rosters were plumped with false names, or thinned out, to keep any certain measure of the clan's strength from their rivals. (And from historians, who are left scrabbling for primary sources within the disparate bureaucracies that corroborate what names we have.) The only ones who could truly identify the signs and codes that indicate an accurate document would be the clan patriarchs and elders themselves.
And after the formation of the Village Hidden In Sound, consulting them became a starkly less viable option."
- from "The Second Dawn: From Rain to Rice Paddy," a popular history book about the Militant Pacifist Movement
"Five Thousand Lilies
In The Valley Of Echoes
Gone, Lightning Flashing"
In The Valley Of Echoes
Gone, Lightning Flashing"
- From the personal journal of Fuuma Hanzaki, Chuunin in the Land of Rice Paddies, promoted to Jonin by the patriarch of his clan for surviving a battle where the Third Raikage took the field
04: Overcorrection?
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"'Madame Serpent' introduced a great deal of reforms to the stagnant economy and bureaucracy of the languishing Rice Paddy Country, pushing modernization, crash-industrialization and massive centralization of military command. Centralizing food distribution and military supply allowed for better competition against the Great Powers, even without her Gifts. When she had the chance to work? The first recipients of her promised empowering treatments were Lord Ketsuhide's personal guard of samurai, and their new capabilities greatly pleased His Grace, who gave the Serpent ever greater leeway in return for her successes.
And with that leeway, she began approaching the surviving clan heads and promising the same restoration she had offered to the daimyo. While there, she would cheerfully convey news of the other clans she had been to and their acceptance of her powerful gifts, promoting competition among and between Rice Paddy's ninja clans and subclans. Each clan, driven to new fears of domination by one of the other empowered clans, decided they must receive augmentations from the Madame Serpent to maintain parity and relevance. And she would give them. So long as the clan was loyal, she would be happy to give them strength.
And so each clan sank to deeper depths of performative loyalty, theoretically to the Daimyo but in practice to Madame Serpent herself. Backward traditionalists among the various clans would protest this, but their treasonous discontent would not come to a head until several years later, leading to the formation of the hidden village of Otogakure, with Our Leader Madame Serpent as Supreme Commander of the Shinobi Corps. She established her capital fortress in the blood-stained Valley of Echoes, in a statement of victory over the shames of the past, and even today continues her work towards the new age for Rice Paddy!"
And with that leeway, she began approaching the surviving clan heads and promising the same restoration she had offered to the daimyo. While there, she would cheerfully convey news of the other clans she had been to and their acceptance of her powerful gifts, promoting competition among and between Rice Paddy's ninja clans and subclans. Each clan, driven to new fears of domination by one of the other empowered clans, decided they must receive augmentations from the Madame Serpent to maintain parity and relevance. And she would give them. So long as the clan was loyal, she would be happy to give them strength.
And so each clan sank to deeper depths of performative loyalty, theoretically to the Daimyo but in practice to Madame Serpent herself. Backward traditionalists among the various clans would protest this, but their treasonous discontent would not come to a head until several years later, leading to the formation of the hidden village of Otogakure, with Our Leader Madame Serpent as Supreme Commander of the Shinobi Corps. She established her capital fortress in the blood-stained Valley of Echoes, in a statement of victory over the shames of the past, and even today continues her work towards the new age for Rice Paddy!"
- "Historical Text" from Otogakure, describing events within the last decade
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05: The First Dawn
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"To understand the rise of Rice Paddy's Militant Pacifists, one needs to understand their ideology. And to understand the ideology, one first needs to understand their predecessor organization.
The original formation of Akatsuki was a direct consequence of the depredations of the Third Shinobi World War. Amegakure had been hit hard by the fighting of the Second Great War, and its people had never truly recovered. Rising from seemingly nowhere in the midst of the war, the Founders Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato began calling for an end to the war, an end to the devastation of the land, the orphaning of the people, and the rejection of the path of heaven. Claiming to have been taught their Way Of Great Peace by a sage from the far east, they denounced the ongoing war of the great powers that Rain Country was caught between, and began gathering volunteers to the cause of defending repairing the towns and villages of the rain-drenched countryside under occupation by the belligerents of the war. They called themselves Akatsuki, Dawn, for they proclaimed that they were the end of the Long Night of War.
Their message was well received by the civilians of Rain, the orphans, widows and grieving parents of three Great Wars, and the peasantry flocked to their banner. Teaching their recruits freely from their own knowledge, and accepting the aid (not service, never service) of defecting ninja, the three founders became known as the Commanders of the People, the Land, and the Heavens, for Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato. When all were in alignment, so they said, then a new world of peace and plenty would reign over humankind.
Seeing their popularity, Hanzo the Salamander, commander of the forces of Amegakure and one of the most feared shinobi of the Second Great War, conspired to co-opt Akatsuki's popularity for himself, and so secure his own power. Reaching out to the Commanders, he offered to use his fame and position to call for a peace conference between the belligerents of the Third War, and allow Akatsuki and its famously charismatic leaders to serve as mediators and negotiators between them, for he too desired peace. But it was not to be.
"In his prognostication and observation of the world, the Sage came to this conclusion:
The ultimate expression of the imbalance of the Mighty is domination. When all is in imbalance, and the Impious Leader has run out of justifications for their rule, they will turn to naked force to feed their hunger for power. It may take many forms, but the Mighty will ever seek any and all means to maintain their position, for it is they know that should they ever be cast down, their crimes against heaven will be punished- and so if the Virtuous seek to remove them, there is no depth to which the Mighty will not stoop."
-Excerpt from the Book Of The Earth, attributed to Konan of Akatsuki
The original formation of Akatsuki was a direct consequence of the depredations of the Third Shinobi World War. Amegakure had been hit hard by the fighting of the Second Great War, and its people had never truly recovered. Rising from seemingly nowhere in the midst of the war, the Founders Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato began calling for an end to the war, an end to the devastation of the land, the orphaning of the people, and the rejection of the path of heaven. Claiming to have been taught their Way Of Great Peace by a sage from the far east, they denounced the ongoing war of the great powers that Rain Country was caught between, and began gathering volunteers to the cause of defending repairing the towns and villages of the rain-drenched countryside under occupation by the belligerents of the war. They called themselves Akatsuki, Dawn, for they proclaimed that they were the end of the Long Night of War.
Their message was well received by the civilians of Rain, the orphans, widows and grieving parents of three Great Wars, and the peasantry flocked to their banner. Teaching their recruits freely from their own knowledge, and accepting the aid (not service, never service) of defecting ninja, the three founders became known as the Commanders of the People, the Land, and the Heavens, for Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato. When all were in alignment, so they said, then a new world of peace and plenty would reign over humankind.
Seeing their popularity, Hanzo the Salamander, commander of the forces of Amegakure and one of the most feared shinobi of the Second Great War, conspired to co-opt Akatsuki's popularity for himself, and so secure his own power. Reaching out to the Commanders, he offered to use his fame and position to call for a peace conference between the belligerents of the Third War, and allow Akatsuki and its famously charismatic leaders to serve as mediators and negotiators between them, for he too desired peace. But it was not to be.
- from "The Second Dawn: From Rain to Rice Paddy," a popular history book about the Militant Pacifist Movement
"In his prognostication and observation of the world, the Sage came to this conclusion:
The ultimate expression of the imbalance of the Mighty is domination. When all is in imbalance, and the Impious Leader has run out of justifications for their rule, they will turn to naked force to feed their hunger for power. It may take many forms, but the Mighty will ever seek any and all means to maintain their position, for it is they know that should they ever be cast down, their crimes against heaven will be punished- and so if the Virtuous seek to remove them, there is no depth to which the Mighty will not stoop."
-Excerpt from the Book Of The Earth, attributed to Konan of Akatsuki
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RagnorakTres
Technically Correct
- Location
- A Rolled Up Sidewalk Somewhere South Of Toledo, OH
- Pronouns
- Any/All
The picture you're painting here is fascinating. The framing of academia definitely lends a different air to the setting; most work in the Boruto's Dad fandom is very ground level, very personally focused rather than looking at the broad scale forces and effects, which is appropriate for the type of story that usually is being told, but this sort of one-step-removed examination is very interesting and definitely unique. I think it works really well and I definitely want to see more.
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Thanks! I've been reading a bit of alternate history lately, and the retrospective view those kinds of stories tend to take has lent a lot to this work.
I hope to be able to write more for you and others to read- been burning through the backlog I have written a bit too fast, so I'll probably slow the pace of these updates (short as they are) so I can keep the juices flowing instead of burning out
06: Read Theory
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"In his prognostication, the Sage came to understand this:
Hunger represents imbalance.
When the hungers of Man are unfulfilled, he will seek to fill them. If he cannot fill them, he will create something to fill them. For creation is Man's nature.
When this is a material hunger, thus comes banditry, thus comes war.
When the hunger is spiritual, thus comes discontent, thus comes apathy and hatred.
For the virtuous leader to create balance and Peace, all hungers must be considered and filled- even those that are not under the virtuous leader's control…"
"In his long observation of the world, the Sage learned this:
For the virtuous leader to succeed, he must understand the men under his command.
Man is an animal, obeisant to the rules of this world. That these rules can be subverted does not remove the need to consider them. And as an animal, chief among his concerns will be the material conditions in which he lives. Understand this, and all the great mysteries of history fall away. Conflict, whether between lords or petty farmers, will always be rooted in the facts of existence.
Only with this understanding can the leader, and the conflict they command, become virtuous."
"If victory in war were all that was required for the Peace of Heaven, it would have been achieved in the days of our fathers. Indeed, the old sage of the east could have achieved it thusly. The virtuous leader, while or even before they fight their struggle, must turn their mind from tasks of war to tasks of the Great Peace. These tasks are many, but may be generalized threefold:
1: Align their command and the theatre of war to the Heavenly Peace, for without the united effort of the command, Peace will never come.
2: Safeguard the Peace from the hungers of the mighty, for they have grown accustomed to the satiations of strength. Cast them down, and let them learn humility.
3: Build the Peace elsewhere, for the mighty, ever needing new conquests to pillage, will see the land aligned with Heaven as an unguarded basket.
Hunger represents imbalance.
When the hungers of Man are unfulfilled, he will seek to fill them. If he cannot fill them, he will create something to fill them. For creation is Man's nature.
When this is a material hunger, thus comes banditry, thus comes war.
When the hunger is spiritual, thus comes discontent, thus comes apathy and hatred.
For the virtuous leader to create balance and Peace, all hungers must be considered and filled- even those that are not under the virtuous leader's control…"
- Excerpt from "The Book Of The Earth," attributed to Konan of Akatsuki
"In his long observation of the world, the Sage learned this:
For the virtuous leader to succeed, he must understand the men under his command.
Man is an animal, obeisant to the rules of this world. That these rules can be subverted does not remove the need to consider them. And as an animal, chief among his concerns will be the material conditions in which he lives. Understand this, and all the great mysteries of history fall away. Conflict, whether between lords or petty farmers, will always be rooted in the facts of existence.
Only with this understanding can the leader, and the conflict they command, become virtuous."
- Excerpt from The Book Of The People, attributed to Yahiko of Akatsuki
"If victory in war were all that was required for the Peace of Heaven, it would have been achieved in the days of our fathers. Indeed, the old sage of the east could have achieved it thusly. The virtuous leader, while or even before they fight their struggle, must turn their mind from tasks of war to tasks of the Great Peace. These tasks are many, but may be generalized threefold:
1: Align their command and the theatre of war to the Heavenly Peace, for without the united effort of the command, Peace will never come.
2: Safeguard the Peace from the hungers of the mighty, for they have grown accustomed to the satiations of strength. Cast them down, and let them learn humility.
3: Build the Peace elsewhere, for the mighty, ever needing new conquests to pillage, will see the land aligned with Heaven as an unguarded basket.
- Excerpt from The Book Of Heaven, attributed to Nagato of Akatsuki
07: In Which I Shamelessly Crib From Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
"I, Hidenobu Kiuchi of Rain Country, known to friends as Kyusuke, being of sound mind and a poisoned gut, do make this my last will and testament. I have run a long way and I know, as Hanzo knew, that I am already dead. I am a member of Akatsuki, who strive forward to the Great Peace, against all the swords of the great powers and the mighty bandits of the world. Our power is great, and our cause is righteous. but being righteous is not, has never been, a perfect shield against knives in the dark, which I know is what awaits my comrades. My Commanders have been led into a trap by Hanzo the Salamander, and his cats-paws have killed any who have gone to warn them. Including me. It is only because of my speed and my family's technique of Hiding Amongst Nature that I have survived this long. I have run for seven days and seven nights and I don't know where I am anymore.
My gut is burning. My fever is getting worse. I cannot hold off the venom much longer. To whoever finds my body, I bequeath a treasure, a duty, and a gift.
The Treasure is this: In my bags are scrolls, bearing the collected teachings of the Commanders of Heaven, Earth, and the People. I have been writing them down to publish them, but now I can't do that. They are fuel to the fire that will burn up the great cycle of death and destruction. They are priceless, and if my masters should perish, irreplaceable.
The Duty is this: Take them, learn from them, and carry that fire as a torch to a new future of Peace. Perhaps you are a bandit ninja, as I was. Here then is your chance for redemption.
The Gift is this: In my hand is a scroll bearing as many techniques as I can think to write down, including my family's secrets. I am the last of my kin and someone should get some more use from them. Take it, learn them, and bear them as a sword against those who threaten the way of Peace.
Some animal is coming. I will have to Hide again for a while.
Konan-sama, please let me be found.
Yahiko-sama, please let me be remembered.
Nagato-sama, please let me be forgiven."
My gut is burning. My fever is getting worse. I cannot hold off the venom much longer. To whoever finds my body, I bequeath a treasure, a duty, and a gift.
The Treasure is this: In my bags are scrolls, bearing the collected teachings of the Commanders of Heaven, Earth, and the People. I have been writing them down to publish them, but now I can't do that. They are fuel to the fire that will burn up the great cycle of death and destruction. They are priceless, and if my masters should perish, irreplaceable.
The Duty is this: Take them, learn from them, and carry that fire as a torch to a new future of Peace. Perhaps you are a bandit ninja, as I was. Here then is your chance for redemption.
The Gift is this: In my hand is a scroll bearing as many techniques as I can think to write down, including my family's secrets. I am the last of my kin and someone should get some more use from them. Take it, learn them, and bear them as a sword against those who threaten the way of Peace.
Some animal is coming. I will have to Hide again for a while.
Konan-sama, please let me be found.
Yahiko-sama, please let me be remembered.
Nagato-sama, please let me be forgiven."
- A scroll found on a stone statue wearing a tattered black cloak, in a Rice Country forest
Hey, I remember this timeline! Glad to see it back.
08: Enter Fuuma Hanzaki
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
you know, fuuma hanzaki looks crazy from a modern viewpoint but really if my life was falling apart the way his must have been i too would reconstruct my entire worldview around a dead guy I found in the woods
"...So we have a young man, thrust into power in his youth as the patriarch of his clan, because he's the highest ranked Shinobi of the clan left standing. He doesn't know what he's doing, he doesn't know who he can trust, he doesn't know what his parents, siblings, cousins, and out-of-clan allies died for at all. He's just so utterly broken by all of this, and he can't deal. So he decides to do something smart.
He takes a walk. Just disengages from the world and goes off into the woods to dissociate for a bit. Who among us,am I right?
Literally a world changing decision, it would turn out, because on his walk, he discovered something that gave him the answers. A set of simple scrolls, copies and annotations of another extremely dense work, that explain to Fuuma Hanzaki just why over half of the people he cared about have all died: The Mighty hungered for new conquest, new pillage to feed their egos, a clearing of unprofitable labor to correct the falling rate of profit. Even better, it gave him a framework of something he could do about it.
- post on forums.compoop.nin
"...So we have a young man, thrust into power in his youth as the patriarch of his clan, because he's the highest ranked Shinobi of the clan left standing. He doesn't know what he's doing, he doesn't know who he can trust, he doesn't know what his parents, siblings, cousins, and out-of-clan allies died for at all. He's just so utterly broken by all of this, and he can't deal. So he decides to do something smart.
He takes a walk. Just disengages from the world and goes off into the woods to dissociate for a bit. Who among us,am I right?
Literally a world changing decision, it would turn out, because on his walk, he discovered something that gave him the answers. A set of simple scrolls, copies and annotations of another extremely dense work, that explain to Fuuma Hanzaki just why over half of the people he cared about have all died: The Mighty hungered for new conquest, new pillage to feed their egos, a clearing of unprofitable labor to correct the falling rate of profit. Even better, it gave him a framework of something he could do about it.
- Excerpt from web page "Fuuma Hanzaki- badassoftheweek.nin"
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Hmm, that name...
Oh. Oh.
This is going to be interesting...