1000 Years Ago, Konohagakure
A land at the center of the known world, prospered and thrived. Its military was large and its people were wealthy, and the lives they all lead seemed to be happy ones. A great mountain in the backdrop, with faces carved upon it, stood as testament to their skill, while a colossal Gate bore testimony of their power. This grandiosity had come at a price though, paid by the working and the ruling class alike. Wars and deception had paved their road to success, and unrest brewed from within and without. The Country of Fire grew nervous with the growing size of its Shinobi Village, while those inside saw that the path they now tread lead either to dominion or ruin.
But fate was cruel. It soon came time for the Village Hidden amidst Leaves to pay for its many sins.
A red rain poured down upon them. The scholars debated over whether this was a terrible concoction of nature, or the wrath of the Goddess herself. It persisted for days, then months, and the people fled into the greater Country to which the village belonged. These tolling months turned to years and all hope was drenched. Even the leaders fled for higher ground, and those few that remained met the same fate as their drowning village. Nearly a decade passed before the torrent came to a close, and the red soil beneath the crumbled village mourned the loss of its pride. It was the most devastating calamity in recorded history, scarring the heart of the Fire Country and rendering it barren for ages.
825 Years Ago, The Ghost Village
The drowned village was now the inhabitant of stories told to children, stories about the Gods and what comes of too much power. No one walked into the large and crimson graveyard, as the perennial shade teased the imagination until the people were convinced that the grounds were haunted.
Those that did find residence in the ruins of Konohagakure, became isolated and learned to sustain themselves. They were Shinobi that realized that dispersing into the expansive lands of Fire would chip away at their Arts. From father to son, the teachings of Konohagakure was passed down the generations in the quiet hospice of ruins.
750 Years Ago, Shinobi
The Shinobi of the drowned village had spread throughout the Fire Country, and without a central Military base, the Country grew weak in its military. This was not a problem as the Country rapidly invested its time and efforts into technology and industrialization. A new kind of success came into light -- the success of the businessman. Machinery became the new measure of the Fire Country's advancement, and the nation prospered. The ways of the Shinobi, passed down in schools and in books, became irrelevant. Soon, it was not the upper class and the honorable that practiced Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu. These men partook in what made money, in what was relevant, business and trade. Even law enforcement began to rely on technology, rather than the hidden arts.
It came to be apparent that the Shinobi ways were now a form of combat used amongst criminals and scum. Like a plague, it distracted the progression of the Country. Then finally, in a decree heard around the world, Ninja Arts were banned. The teachers were removed from schools, erased from books, and purged from the land. In only a decade, the Shinobi became a thing of the past, doomed to be passed down in folklore, along with the Village it had once belonged to.
500 Years Ago, The Konoha Corporation
The Shinobi had long since been forgotten now, and in its place there were machinists and traders. The nation became the hub of technology, factories and power-plants now littered across its land. But not all was well, and a light trickle of conflicts once in a while along the border alerted the Governing Council that they had competition. For years now, the commerce of the Country struggled due to attacks from outside sources, and these sources used techniques they could not explain with their modern science. Those that believed in the existence of Shinobi, or those that knew such people existed beyond the borders of the Nation, understood what it was that they were against.
During these hardships, a grim and crimson ray of hope came to light, and it originated from Konohagakure. The underworld of crime in the Fire Country had come under the grasp, over the years, of one large organization. This was referred to, by the people who had not come face to face with it, as the Yakuza. This Yakuza was a collection of families that had gone underground after the ban on Ninja Arts. And now, when their Nation needed a better defense than pure technology could provide, the Yakuza rose out of its slumber. Deploying its agents to the various routes where the most attacks and thefts were happening, the Yakuza single-handedly began solving the problem of security. The older generation was wary of this uprising, as they knew that even in providing safety, these agents were 'Shinobi', and thus they were criminals. But the younger generation, the youth and the children all loved their new-found guardians.
A few years later, during the national elections, the first known member of this Yakuza found his seat in the Governing Council. In months, he swayed the public opinion of the Ninja Arts, and was able to convince the Council to not only lift its ban on the Ninja Arts, but to support it as it once had, so many years ago. As a result, the government recognized this Yakuza under its official name, the Konoha Corporation. Functioning out of the old Konohagakure, this Corporation quickly became the heart of the Country. As it was overseen by the government, no official 'head' was allowed to be appointed, and instead, the Corporation was run by the Governing Council.
This saw the rise of the Ninja Arts once more, as the books and schools filled up quickly with the teachings that had long been forgotten. Soon, the older generation of citizens that had been wary of this Konoha Corporation grew irrelevant and quiet, while the new blood of the Fire Country began to acclimatize to once again having a Shinobi center.
Last Year, The Republic of Fire
Technology and the Ninja Arts thrived hand in hand. One complimented the other constantly, and power came in abundance. Konohagakure was rebuilt now, and had swiftly become the sight of attention that it had been a thousand years ago. Skyscrapers broke through the sky, the glint of metal and glass made one wonder if it had really been the sight of a disastrous flood.
Nearly five hundred years had passed since the rise of the Konoha Corporation, but up until now, it had been only a Shinobi center for the Country. But just last year, for the first time ever, every seat in the Governing Council had some link to the Corporation. Slowly but surely, the Corporation had grasped leadership, and in only a few months, it was ruled that the lands of the drowned Konohagakure, now known as Leaf City, would be the new Capital. Announcing the entirety of the country as a Shinobi Nation, Fire Country was replaced by the name: The Republic of Fire, known in short as the Fire Nation. Crime is at an all-time low, as the law is bolstered again by Shinobi Agents of Konoha Corporation. Life expectancy and average health both flourished due to Konoha Corporation's investments into the Medical field, sending a large portion of its Shinobi force into furthering the reaches of science.
And in an act of defiance to the Goddess, the tallest building known to man was built atop the Mountain of old Konohagakure. It shot into the heavens, and served as the head-quarters of the Konoha Corporation's upper echelon. Lighting up the sky and clouds, it looks down onto the metropolis that is, Leaf City.
It has been a week since the incident at the gates that left him confined in the hospital for so long. Not to mention that he stood up at the edge of life and death. He was lucky, he supposed, that Junko had been there to save him, though Kiri could tell that the other was far from happy to see the predicament that he was in. Needless to say, if this was another person, he would have been dead before he could get a chance to salvage himself. But there was one thing that had been in Kiri’s mind ever since. What exactly was Leaf, the country he was born into but never raised?
A few streets down, Yume stretched her arms above her head. One of the cameras whirred from behind her, to which she turned to make a silly face. With her were three other idols, in just as eye catching costumes. A slight crowd had gathered around them, curious of the filming but blocked off by the lines of security holding them a safe distance away.