Event The Zenith of Atrocity

[Cloud Seer]

Blood red beams of the sun’s dusk drove through the painted glass of the monolithic church centered in Tenouza’s capital. The red, orange, and sometimes shades of purple beamed across the body of a man clad in heavy white layered robes trimmed in ruby and gold. They were pristine as his clean cream colored flesh, long overflowing snow-white hair, and perfectly set jaw. Across the fingers of his right hand were three different rings of varying precious metals and gems, and on the left ring finger a remarkably simple golden band. Normally vested in such gallantry the Pope of Tenouza would have a deeply calming presence, a smile that could pierce any defense, and a proud voice that was hard not to instantly love. However, church service had long since been over, and the pope’s face carried now a look of sheer malevolence as his beady black eyes scanned over the scroll he had just ripped open to see how well the first assault had gone.

Lands razed. Farming communities destroyed or disrupted completely. Apparently, unlike his own glorious country, the serfs of Lightning has

the ability to contact help. However, most of those crystal beacons along with a great deal of messenger pigeons had been struck down. The Shogun had yet to make a move. Everything, was going to plan. Iano leaned back into his gilded leather seat and re-read the scroll once more with glee, his feet kicking excitedly as if he were a child, seeing if there was any smaller print he had missed. However, as the first day of the war was winding down into dusk, it would appear that they had struck a devastating blow to the country above. The Kumogakure military would of faced against the Weapon earlier this afternoon. He had felt the small shock wave that had been whittled down to a mere window shake, but the bright bolt of light, even from this far South, had been clear as day. Iano fully assumed that the shinobi forces that would of been the country’s only back up was nothing more than a smoldering crater now. Slowly curling the scroll back up, the Tenouzan pope held it vertically and willed his power to turn the roll of paper into a column of fire; which quickly became a pile of ash in his hand but only a second later. Tilting his wrist casually to the side he let the destroyed letter fly into the air before slowly willing himself out of the throne to stalk behind it and open a secret door. It presented a well lit stairwell that brought the Pope down into a large room with a round wooden table centering it. Present at the table already and waiting were two of his four generals; both with a half-hearted smile.

The moment he walked through, the religious leader held his arms up to call two pubescent boys that rushed out from the corners of the room to help remove the heavy robes and place them carefully on their pegs. Beneath the robes was a black-pinstriped hand tailored suit, sans the jacket, trimmed with onyx and black jade. With his arms held out the two boys helped him shrug on the missing piece of his suit and then finally a beautiful sapphire colored ribbon was placed in a waiting hand. Iano pulled his long bright hair back to tie the ribbon around a ponytail before practically gliding to a gilded chair that was clearly his waiting at the table for him. Once he settled into the chair, Iano held his left hand out in aloft to expect something. This waiting left hand was graced with a crystal wine glass from one child, while the other carefully poured a deep red bubbly beverage into the waiting crystal. The Pope took a gentle sniff, swirled it, and then gently sipped at it; his other two generals did the same with glasses that had been filled in waiting for Iano.
“For the Glory of Tenouza,” they all recited once the drinks had been finished. The two boys quietly rushed around the table to refill them.

The two at the table were no where near as relaxed as their leader. Hoyate and Nikkia looked more nervous than a long-tailed cat in

a room full of occupied rocking chairs, but then again they were the only two to speak out against the war in the first place. When Iano announced before all the people of Tenouza that they would finally be burning the Sin out of Lightning for a more glorious future, during a service no-less, Hoyate was the first to speak against it in private. He was an ex-shinobi of Hoshigakure and the only active chakra user aside from their lone assassin, Udo, in the entire military. His whole reason for being in this country was for the woman at his side, but he was also no stranger to war; especially one involving the Lightning Country. The man could have lost his life speaking against the Pope, but because had done so in private during the first War Council, his life had been spared. However, even now, the grizzled veteran looked grim and pale as a sheet. Nikkia, his wife and leader of the Soldier division, was just as scared. Unlike her husband she had grown up in Tenouza as a serf, rising to her position in the leadership due to her natural strengths with a sword, wit, and the ability to out-drink every last man in a patriarchy. She was also the very first “Chakra Hunter”, a secret group of Tenouzans that were formed personally by Iano right after he took power. They were tasked originally to go out and steal, kill, or debilitate chakra users to weaken Kumogakure to prepare for a war launch. Yet in that whole year, Nikkia saw more of her own people die than she saw weakening Chakra Users, and had she not met her husband on that trip as he escaped from Hoshigakure, she would of returned to Tenouza a failure. Both of them had first hand accounts on how ferocious the shinobi villages could be, and how they needed far more preparation before starting this war. Iano, however, disagreed and decided instead to bank on his various personal deals, and the faith in a God that she had always questioned. Even as they prepared to talk about the resounding success of the first day, the two were both there ready to tell the Pope to be cautious. Fully abreast of the man’s plans, the couple realized how easily things could go tits up if the Samurai, generously given to them by the Shogun as a sign of good will, stationed here in Tenouza was to learn of their tactics.

“Report,” Iano said after downing his second glass.
“Field reports state overwhelming success,” Nikkia started, “General Uzimaru’s reports light casualties on our side, and all of them due to The Mark. We are still at full capacity with our Knights, all of which so far seem to be using their Marks far better than in training. The Samurai remaining in the Capital are still waiting on orders from the Shogun, the shinobi forces have yet to be seen as of the timing of this letter, which is at 14:00. Most of the West has been taken, the Heartlands are currently ours though battling the swamp itself has been a bit of a task, and the South Coast will be the next breach as well as the first guaranteed clash against the Shinobi and Samurai. Both guard the vacationing cities that dot the coast, but if all goes according to plan at the very least the latter defense will solve itself,” she finished and then took a deep breath to steady herself to report the bad news. Before she could her husband held up a hand; Nikkia released the held breath.
“However,” Hoyate continued with a deeper, far more serious tone, “We have yet receive word from either Udo or our spies stationed around Kumogakure. The last communication from the Weapon was moments before the first blast went off, and we have reason to believe the attack was off its mark. No one has reported back yet and we had at least three spies outside of the village that was supposed to report when the shinobi were annihilated; we haven’t gotten word from a single one. Then there is Udo…” before Hoyate could finish his sentence he felt it. A clench of force like a giant hand around his entire head. He reached up to start clawing at the invisible energy crushing his skull when it was released suddenly. The man caught a breath he hadn’t realized had been squeezed out and looked across the rounded table with shock.
“Udo, will do what he wills. He is the only one of you I fully trust and I defer to his judgment of handling his task. Enough ground work has been lain to accomplish our goals and yet, even through this delightful buzz, I can still feel your distrust for my orders.”
“My lord, it’s not that it’s-” Nikkia started and was silenced by a the same simple glare that nearly crushed her husband’s skull with mysterious powers.
“You both fear retaliation from the Shinobi, but I present to you the same as I always have children: have faith! Faith that God above will see our movement righteous and will remove all obstacles from our path! I implore you for the last time, wash away your worries. By the law of our God, the Sinful won’t ever get a chance to react,” the Pope finished as he lifted the third glass of bubbly to his lips.

A glass of the same red, expensive champagne was set down on a solid oak desk. It was outside of tradition and an import from the Fire Country, but Shiranai loved it anyways. The chair he was seated upon was far better for his legs than siting on the floor with the regular tables, and it gave him no small amount of authority over his constituents who insisted on meeting him in his personal office unaware of his ‘big chair’. It made them lose ground on their argument just from sheer presence alone, and had been a very useful tool in negotiating with the Moon Council on their petty bickering. Yet as the Shogun finished his third glass of champagne, he found that he still couldn’t get right. Something was off about today, and that loud bang earlier still had yet to be reported back to him. To top that off, the sun was starting to set and it was colored a far more bloodier red than he had seen in years. His natural leader instincts said something was wrong, but he simply sighed and pulled open a drawer instead. Inside of it was a Tenouzan holy symbol pendant on a golden chain that Shiranai lifted over his head. The cool metal of the chain pressed against the back of his neck relaxed him as his thumb ran over the etched symbols on the religious item a few times. He could feel his heart and mind soothing itself as he took in a deep breath; trying to put his worries in the hands of his god. Something was still there, though, and he couldn’t just shake it.

With a small amount of frustration the Shogun suddenly stood up, knocking back the ornate chair a few feet back as he quietly walked towards the West facing window to open it up and look out on his lands for the first time that day. The city remained the same, silent, large, and daunting. Yet as his vision lifted out towards the horizon he began to notice things out of place. Plumes of smoke in the distance to big to be wood burning and as the wind rolled by, a scent of death. The Shogun was no fool. Though he had been a man that ran from his responsibilities for some time, he never forgot the lessons imparted to him by the Kumogakure shinobi and knew immediately that this was a bloody conflict. Someone had tipped the scales of political balance and his gut screamed that it was the very same ninja that were finally doing as Iano had swore they would one day; take over. Kumogakure had always been a bit of a thorn for him. Not because they weren’t curtious, and even for a time sheltered him, but because they were naturally ten-times more powerful than all of his Samurai put together. The only thing that had kept them abrest in power was their technology - and even then, rumors of shinobi fused with chakra and technology roamed the mountains.

Shiranai outright dashed back to his desk to pull out a drawer full of official forms before selecting the one that would openly declare war from the Capital on Kumogakure. This would be the only chance they had, just like Iano had cautioned him. The shinobi were considerably weakened in their current state, just as the reports and Tenouza had been claiming, and now they were finally tying to take over the land to once more solidify their power. It had only been a matter of time, as he had been warned by multiple nobles, a religious leader, and even his best advisers. The country could not keep on with so many divided powers. It was bad enough he had to play whims to the nobles and their own standing armies, let alone a super power sitting on the mountains above them all.

The official form took nothing to fill out, just a few lines and his signature. It was the first time he had ever needed the documents as Shiranai was far more acceptable to talking than killing, but he was keyed up from a year’s worth of seedy information being fed his way from the Southern delegates. Sadly, this was also the last document he would ever sign, period. Right as the quill left the page a filthy hand darted out from behind him and snatched the document from before the Shogun, and before he could shout a complaint, Shiranai found his voice silenced by the cut of steel and gurgle of blood. His life blood sprayed in an arc across the oak desk, ruining other official documents he had yet send out while also filling his wine glass partially back up. The Shogun’s legs lost strength and he dropped to the floor in a kneel, his hands clutching helplessly at the blood pouring between his fingers. Confusion far overtook the panic of death as he looked up weakly from the floor. The last thing his confused mind processed was that he noticed his desk front didn’t have a covering, and anyone could have seen up his kimono this whole time; “How embarrassing”, were his last thoughts as a death rattle escaped his lips.

A man standing in filthy rags wrapped around his body gently cleaned the knife on his choice of clothing before returning the weapon back into the folds of cloth. Without a sound the assassin stepped around and picked up the crystal wine glass to pour out its contents and refill them with fresh champagne before downing the whole glass of alcohol lightly mixed with the Shogun’s life before casually tossing the glass to shatter against the floor; oddly, even that had no sound. Udo smiled at the sight of the bloody dusk before muttering to himself,
“It’s a good day for change…”