Story of Shimagakure

[Baylu Eras]

Year 92 - The Beginning

The Village Shimagakure was formed by a man named Uchiha Ichi. He had found the quaint and isolated island through his travels and had become fond of it. Only a few families lived on the island and only a few pirates had ever come in contact with it. The Tokiha family and the Lao family were the two families that lived on the island. Before Ichi created Shimagakure, he had visited the island and found that it had been attacked by pirates, leaving only the mother and daughter of the Tokiha family and the Grandfather, BakaLao, of the Lao family. Ichi expressed his interest in creating a Shinobi academy and giving the families protection for the rest of their lives. They agreed, and the village began its transformation.

Uchiha Ichi invited several masters of the arts he had met in his travels. Harada Shinichi, Tenmoki Yuki, Hyuuga Nao, Tategami Shuga and Nako Tuhai were the five he had chosen to aid him in the building of this village. Tenmoki Yuki had brought her children with her, along with two nurses she felt were capable of handling wounds any shinobi would suffer. Harada Shinichi only brought himself and his skeptical views. He wasn't fond of any of the other masters, especially Tenmoki Yuki. Hyuuga Nao had brought his family as well with his wife and two children. Nao wished to study the sharingan and its mysteries while his two children would train at the Shinobi Academy when it was built and they were of age. Tategami Shuga brought her good friend Prodo, who opened a bar in Shimagakure and knew Shuga as a regular. Nako Tuhai started an Arboretum in the village, so that they would have on hand any herbs to counter any poisons the shinobi may suffer.

And so the masters, the friends they brought with and the native families of the island began to build what would flourish into a grand village. Trade routes were set up to keep a steady income to the village, while keeping its location hidden.  

[Baylu Eras]

Year 96 - Academy Opening

After four years of building, perfecting the trade routes and recruitment missions to the mainland, the Academy and village was finally open. The Academy began with a long list of students, but as the seasons went by, the masters that taught these promising pupils, found that there weren't many that would make it to graduation. Those that couldn't handle the stress of chakra on their bodies or the emotional stress that came with the heat of battle were sent back to the mainland.

The masters of the village worked day in and out to teach and keep trade between them and village alive. A weapon smith was hired to help craft weapons for the aspiring shinobi and for the masters who were going out on dangerous missions to the mainland in order to bring back a good lump sum of Ryo from time to time. Exports of medical items from the clinic were sent out on a weekly basis, which had Yuki, Tuhai and Nao working late nights to finish while teaching the children of the academy. The first years were rough, but the hard work paid off as the village began to flourish.  

[Baylu Eras]

Year 98 - Outlawed Masters

Shimagakure had been up and running for a full two years now. Shinobi came and went form the village, leaving their imprint of good and bad memories for those that remained. Uchiha Ichi had been given the title of Kage over the years; a Shadow that kept them safe from the rest of the world's eagle eyes. He became a strong figure and an idolized leader by the young aspiring students and the masters that respected the work that he did by keeping the village running. However, the masters were being searched for while they lived their busy yet humble lives at the village.

The past of three certain masters had caught up with the village; Harada Shinichi, Tenmoki Yuki and Uchiha Ichi. All three had served the Katon Nation at one point in time. The emperor, Shiyue, had placed bounties on their heads and called their actions from breaking away from him 'Betrayals to the Throne'. Harada Shinichi had once proven to be a strong warrior that could take out other nation's armies all alone without the aid of any army of his own. The general Harada, who had given Shinichi his name, was disappointed in the man's disappearance and alliance with Uchiha Ichi and requested the bounty be put in his head. Tenmoki Yuki's husband was upset with the woman's actions of leaving his home to create a new one. Tenmoki Koro was no other than Shiyue's Grand Advisor and since Yuki had been so selfish and taken the children, Koro had placed a bounty on his own wife's head. Uchiha Ichi had been a diplomat for Shiyue, going on trips to gain the respect and alliance of the other nations, who were now turning on Shiyue in Ichi's absence.

The Katon Nation was on the war path, conquering every nation at their borders searching for the outlaws and creating a bad image for the three with the general public. Those lords, emperors and rulers of the other nations knew better than to follow Shiyue's rumors and tried to contact the three in order to aid them to fight against this foe.  

[Baylu Eras]

Year 101 - A New Master: The Dark Thief

Over the year, the Kage knew the Katon Nation could not be left unchecked. The Anbu gathered to plan their mission against the threatening nation and its leaders. In the end, it was decided that Harada Shinichi and his understudy, Jikan Jintachi, would lead an assassination against the three 'heads'; Tenmoki Koro, Shiyue and Harada. Jinatachi, a man of nobility and ways of bushido had found it hard to slay someone in cold blood. He knew the details of the attack and had no problem taking the life of Shiyue, the corrupt official who yearned for nothing more than power. However, when Jintachi came to Tenmoki Koro, he could not find it in him to slay the man. Koro's actions were bred out of the love for his children. Jintachi, not knowing what do to, captured the man.

Harada Shinchi had a difficult task that Ichi had laid out in front of him. Shinichi was to take out the one man he had viewed as a father figure; General Harada. The battle between the two was an epic test against strength, emotion and skill. In the end, Shinichi lived only with a thread of life remaining. During the battle, a strange person had interjected in the fight. Jio Tomoko, a woman famed as the Dark Thief, had stood over Shinichi as his body began to slip away into darkness. Only the annoyance of the woman being there kept Shinichi alive until Jintachi re-grouped with the man and returned to Shimagakure. Jintachi, not sure what to do, brought the Dark Thief and Tenmoki Koro with them.

Jio Tomoko, the Dark Thief, met Uchiha Ichi, who had been rumored to be the Dark Flame during his years of fighting for the underdog in battles the Katon Nation had reigned many years ago. Like a fanatic, Jio Tomoko swore her loyalty to the Kage and aided the village with her mastery of Fuin techniques, thus being the sixth master of Shimagakure. It was thanks to her techniques, that Tenmoki Koro was allowed to leave the village alive after seeing his children for the first time in seven years. Sealing his memories and replacing them with new ones, Jio Tomoko was able to create a ally out of the Katon Nation by creating an ally out of Tenmoki Koro.

As a new master joined, a previous master disappeared. Tategami Shuga had been charged with a new member of her clan; Tategami Maya. The stress of becoming a mother figure wasn't a task that Shuga was ready for. The master of Taijutsu left the island and left her clan behind just as a second member joined. Shuga deemed Maya as the new clan member as the drunken master left the island and abandoned her responsibilities. Nako Tuhai was also a master that had left even before Shuga had disappeared. His love affair with the woman had left him feeling quite vulnerable and he escaped the woman's love ensnarement before it could hit him. He now keeps his name a secret while he brothel hops every night in a drunken state.

After the review of the assassination mission, it was decided that Jikan Jintachi was not fit to become a shinobi. With his other clan members, the Jikans were sent back to the Water Country to study under their own samurai ways.  

[Sylvok Myr]

Year 103 to Year 104 - Repercussion

The Shinobi way of life had been flourishing as more missions and requests for shinobi aid came to Shimagakure. Where jobs flourished for one, they dwindled for another... The noble Samurai were beginning to become shadows of protectors and fighters that once were. There techniques and talents were rumored to be less skilled than those of the Shinobi. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were starting to be held above sword techniques and hand to hand combat skills. Turfs wars began to break out, but there were no wars to be had by the samurai since they were so small in number. Something was growing with these repressed men and women that were being pushed aside and would soon have its own dawn...

During his stay on Shimagakure, Meho Dhan had been kept under restraint by Ichi, Tomoko and Natamo. However, due to Ichi's death, Tomoko's absence and Natamo's lack of physical control over Dhan, the Meho Warlord had grown bored and gone wild without his caretakers. As the new Kage, Shinichi did not have the well-advised words of Ichi to restrain his own actions as Dhan began killing villagers of Shimagakure for fun. Taking the life of the warlord without a second thought was an action that would bring a year of war upon Shimagakure.

The Mehos living on Haha Island sent their warriors to Shimagakure to attack their shores. The first attack was a savage one as the Mehos threw their most fearsome and gruesome warriors at the unprotected village. Lives were lost with the first wave of attacks. Many shinobi careers were snuffed out before they even began as Academy students were torn apart by the cannibals. Not only were children killed, but also gentle souls that had lived on the island before Shimagakure even began. Tokiha Mai was slain by the Mehos, leaving the newly announced genin, Orika, an orphan.

Shimagakure shinobi that had taken up base in the mainland were called back home to help defend the village against the vicious and endless attacks by the Mehos. At first, there were strong warriors that came down upon the village, but as they were defeated the Mehos began to throw children and women at Shimagakure, hoping to make their stand and defeat this enemy and reclaim the Ikatsugi-Ago, the demonic weapon in which Meho Dhan had wielded. The Mehos eventually faded away from Shimagakure as their clan began to twiddle down to a mere fifty. The horrors they had committed on the shoreline of Shimagakure would not be forgotten by anyone as they tried to return to peace.  

[Katz the Nine Lives]

Year 105 - Black Spring

Many things were occurring around the world. The threat of Meho still lurked from the previous year and this year brought on a new enemy. The samurai. Out of fear that their way of life would be ruined, the honorable warriors began to plot for the elimination of all shinobi. Yet none of these major forces could have predicted the unknown enemy quickly approaching. This new force remained quiet like an unknown cancer within the body. It slowly spread over the years and progressed until one day it would surge forward like an earthquake or tsunami. Shimagakure would be the epicenter of this cataclysm.

The end of spring was the day of a new festival in which three strangers in masks arrived to the village. Their mission to excavate the beast that lay within the ruins of a sunken ship off the coast of Shima. The two tailed beast, Nibi, awoke with such a burning fury that it took what few jounin in the village left to try and subdue the beast. The battle lasted thirteen hours journeying into night with the inhabitants as victors. Unfortunately this was part of the plan of the sinister three. The beast was easy to capture and the jounin were too exhausted to prove any match for them. Tenmoki Yuki was first to fall and even the kage, Shinichi quickly fell to the trio’s unusual and devastating jutsu. Whether it was man, woman, child or animal, each person in the village was taken care of indiscriminately. Some survived, some did not. Most were infected by an aggressive venom from the group.

Within the next few days multiple samurai bases lay devastated with many items procured. One including the other Orochi survivor and his new protégé. Within that time Tenmoki Aya and Yamanaka Kane’s squad were attacked returning to home. Their vessel was sunk, with Kane being the only known survivor. HaHa Island became another targeted place. Using to their advantage the disarrayed and bitter Meho clan, the faction had them attack Dhan and Namato’s group. It was a battle of quality against quantity. Something that worked in favor of the new enemy. Even though their bodies were never found the Meho were able to kill the two jounin. This was with help of the two masked and powerful shinobi. At the same time most of the Meho clan was killed in the battle. The rest were easy to take care of for the group. Most were captured, the rest exterminated. Just as they appeared with a faint whisper, they left each site without a sound. “The deaf noise...” was the only thing heard from one of the members as they disappeared from Shimagakure. This worldwide attack became known to everyone as the ‘Black Spring’ event.

Yet all was not lost. Within the ashes of darkness and despair the will of fire still beat. To the survivors and the new generation who shall inherit the will of fire it was their legacy rebirth. “Izou Sosei”.