Invitation to Peace (All Kage, Current and Former)

I walked out onto the balcony, and looked down into the Spire. Smoke pillars rose from the chimneys of the stone buildings down below and floated out into the clean air from the hole in the top of the mountain. I looked past the smokey towers and onto the people of my mountain themselves. They ran hurriedly from street corner to street corner, from the market to the pubs, from the mines to the barracks, and from the houses to the medics. I heard a cry from far off, a woman shedding tears produced by the bitter losses of war. My people were suffering, and I thought that my invading Elkwood would speed up the end of this suffering. I was wrong. I had moved several of my people the the forest village of Elkwood in order to create some breathing room here in the village, but even with more room, we still suffered. They were famished and parched. Their stomachs growled and their bodies withered.

I let off a disgruntled puff of smoke from the cigar hung loosely in my mouth, and I ran a hand through my white hair. I had the headband of my distant lover in my right palm, and I turned my gaze from the village to the scuffed headband in my hand. This war has brought nothing but pain, pain and anger that have distracted the world from the terrible force driving the chaos in our confused world. We needed to set aside our differences, set aside all of our quarrels, and focus on the defeating of the Raksaka. I had almost been on the brink of giving up, and this new idea had given me hope. I needed to bring this war to an end, and there was only one way to do it. We needed a Kage Summit.

I walked back into my room with a new passion plastered at the forefront of my mind. "You, pageboy," I said as I walked quickly to the back of my dwelling, "Fetch me the good parchment and a quill and meet me at my desk. Hurry!" The page ran off and I walked to my bedroom and grabbed a jacket. It wasn't the jacket I usually wore, the one that said "General" on the collar and had the symbol of the Rebellion etched into the fibers on the back. No, this time I grabbed the jacket labeled "Mountain" on the back. It was the jacket of my father, the jacket of the Yamakage. The pageboy met up with me as I made it to my large oak desk, and I began writing immediately.

"To the leaders of our suffering world,

I am Bryn T. Stormblood, General of the Shinobi Confederation and Yamakage of the Mountain Province, Patriarch of the Stormblood Clan and Jinchuuriki of the Mighty Ram. I have recently had my men attack and conquer the village of Elkwood in the Northern Forests in a desperate attempt to expand living space for the thousands of refugees living safely within the walls of the Mountain. I expected not only to speed up the end of the war, but to provide a better living for the people who starve under my name. I could not have been more wrong, and I now realize that there is only one true way to end the suffering that my people, and the people of the entire world face. This war needs to be ended. But not with a sword or a flame, with peace. Here I am, with more land and the upper hand in the war of our people, asking the rest of the world to help me. I need you to read this letter with an open mind, and a mind for not your power, for not "Order" and "Freedom," but simply for "Peace."

The world is in chaos. For the past two decades we have relentlessly beaten on the doors of the enemy, whether they be for the Emperor or for Rebellion. We have murdered helpless people, and we have burned down their homes. We have done this, and we have gotten absolutely nowhere. The Emperor has no more power than he did at the beginning of our fighting, and the Rebellion has no more followers. What we do all have, however, is destruction. Fukamigakure floats as once a marvel of the known world, broken in shards of glass and water-filled homes suspended in the middle of the ocean. Sakyugakure, the village of sand, is nothing but toppled buildings and corpses torn to bits by the relentless storms. Jokigakure, the proud village of the Sun Flare Province and capitol of the Empire, lies in ruins as a heap of ash and a few ambitious members of a forgotten clan's scrapped homes. Korigakure is nothing but ice, appearing to be naught but a heap of snow amongst the many more in the Great Tundra.

In our pointless fighting, we have let rise to a new enemy, an enemy with the power to do all of this. An enemy that has resurrected the most powerful being in all of the world. An enemy that has slaughtered people for nothing but entertainment and that have angered the Tailed Beasts enough as to go into pointless, destructive rampages. In our breach of worldly security, we might as well have caused all of this death ourselves. We might as well have added these sufferings onto the already present ones of our terrible world. What can we say for ourselves? Nothing. We have no one to blame but ourselves, and now we must do whatever we can to fix this world that we call our home. We need to unite, under one people, as Five Great Nations with an allegiance as steady as the Mountain, as free as the Ocean, as bright as the Sun, as soft as the Sand, and as tall as the Forest. We must join together and end the evil known as the Raksaka, and we must end the suffering of our peoples.

I call forth the Second Summit of the Kage to discuss the compromises necessary to bringing forth this peace. If you have the integrity of one of the Shadows of Protection, you will come to this meeting even if you disagree with what I've said. I know it may be a long shot, but we need this to work, or we're all doomed. The Summit will be held during the Chuunin Exams in a disclosed location within Aerogakure. That way, we'll all be in the same place to watch our Genin fight in the Exams in the one true neutral location of the world. With haste, my friends.

Kindly,
Bryn T. Stormblood"

I gave the letter to my pageboy, who then rolled it up. He ran off to make copies of the letter and send it out to the rest of the Kage. All I could do now was wait, and all I could do now was pray. I had hoped Thor was on my side that day.

I was sitting on my balcony from the Imperial Tower built in Morigakure when I was approached by a news boy. I'd been dwelling over the news about of the battling bijuu on the battlefield at Elkwood and how I was to retaliate. I had no plans yet. I opened the letter stamped with the seal of the Yamakage. What did he want? To mock me and gloat about his victory? And then I read.

After finishing the letter, I crumpled it into a ball and scoffed. I wanted no peace, but I also had a devious plan. With a war out of the way, I could focus on taking control of the entire Empire. As much as the Emperor meant to me, I could easily defeat him and claim myself as the new ruler of the land. So I decided I'd take the bait for this summit and called for my personal parchment.

"Bryn,

Ruler of the Rebellion and carrier of the legendary Yonbi, I, Haru Raba, Grand General of the Imperial Army and former ruler of Jokigakure, patriarch of the Raba Clan, will be attending this "Summit of Leaders." I hope we can strike a deal for my land back as well as putting and end to this ridiculous civil war. We can then focus our efforts on the Bijuu and this Raksaka organization. In due time, perhaps we can put this all behind us and one day retire to the Anghor Mountains and joke about this silly war. I shall see you at Aerogakure.

Until then,
General Haru Raba"

I closed the letter and sent it on it's way to the Yamakage. Maybe if this war ended I could quit kissing the asses of all those funding this god forsaken war. Or maybe we wouldn't reach an agreement. Who knows? Only time can tell.

Neo wasn't preoccupied today, in fact for the past few months he has had nothing rather important and in need of his look over due to the fact that this land was being handle by the elders. Neo used to hate paperwork, scratch that he still does, but lately only thing that has been consuming his time is boredom. Throughout this time of boredom Neo has not been focused on anything in awhile, his hair included as it was now quite long and unkempt. Besides this newest addition to his appearance all in all Neo wanted to so badly to return home, only that there was no home to return to due to the chaos that the lands had wrought upon it. It was a sad case to remember I am an illiterate pig with no vocabulary but Neo had hopes to bring it back to life one day, but first he had to survive the challenges that were in front of him now. As Neo walked along his path to nowhere in particular, he could hear footsteps coming from behind him, and out of curiosity he would turn his head slightly so that he could see what was happening behind him. There was a boy whom ran right up to Neo and ask that he stop for a moment however the boy could not speak the next few words for awhile sense he needed a second to catch his breath there was no telling how much running the kid probably did to find Neo. "I... have... a letter... for you sir" he would pull out the letter and give it to Neo before running off to complete his other duties. Neo would inspect the letter from the outside before proceeding to open it and read it's contents. Neo's eyes would hover over the words several times before he would heave a heavy sigh (what is this? some kind of prank of sorts? a trap possibly?). Neo would re-read the letter again as he would make his way to a tea shop but not just any tea shop he was headed to the Jade Dragon which happened to be near by. He would enter and great Iroh as it had been awhile sense they last spoke, he would take a seat, and order some tea. Remembering he would now have to respond to this letter he would whistle softly causing a genin to rush to his side whom had been given the task of helping Neo with errands should he need it. "I need you to run to my home and grab me a spear quill and parchment, can ya do that for me?" the boy would nod and be on his way. It would be a few minutes before the boy would return and deliver Neo's things, Neo would nod his thanks and set his focus on the letter.

"Bryn T. Stormblood,

As I understand it seems you have decided to put in end to this war that has been raging between the Imperial and Rebellion forces, you say it is time to join forces against a new threat that plagues the land. It is true I've seen the tolls this war has wrought upon us, I've felt the pain and the sorrow, and I want so much to finally put an end to this war and the fighting so with that being said, trap or not I shall attend the Kage Summit as a representative of Sakyugakure. I only hope you mean what you say Yamakage, to put an end to this war would mean so much blood and lives can be spared, and as for this Raksaka I know not of their intent but I understand now that they need to be stopped, however I suppose it shall all be discussed once we arrive at the Summit and so until then I bid you adieu.

The one and only,
Neo Magunetto"

Neo would sign an official Sakyugakure seal upon the letter before handing the letter to the genin "get this to the page boy, tell him to send it to Chikagakure's Yamakage it must be delivered post haste" the genin would take the parchment and be on his way once more. Neo would relax a bit, and now that he thought about it, the chuunins exams were about to begin "greeaaat....". Neo would sip on his tea as he pondered on how this summit would go, not good was the only answer Neo could come up with.