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“I can see that we have a variety of responses here – and they’re all actually valid, believe it or not,” said Masao, taking a sip from his flask again. “I’m going to start by addressing Santaru-kun’s response,” he said, wryly looking at the boy.
“You’re actually quite right from several legal and one could even argue, moral perspectives. The noble rank of Daimyo confers upon Hayata Shin the right to succeed to the throne provided several conditions are met. Firstly, there must be no other members of the extant royal family who share more of the former Shogun Shiro Amakusa Yoshinobu zi Kaminari’s blood than Hayata Shin does. And how much blood does Hayata Shin share with the former Shogun? None! But these past three decades have been special and so the Raikage actually has a chance.
“Normally, royal families tend to have dozens of members – cousins, brothers, bastard children, in-laws, et cetera - who delight in nothing more than scheming to murder each other in order to climb the succession ladder, but in the former Shogun’s case, well, one of them actually wiped
everyone else out! You might remember that former Crown Prince Shiro Amakusa Tokisada zi Kaminari, was in actuality one of the leaders of an extremist religious group dedicated to the worship of a figure known as the ‘Hitokage’, and that these same forces were responsible for the Great Demon Invasion of Cloud twenty six years prior. Well, as part of his plan to make the entire country into a grand duchy of Hell, the Crown Prince systematically slaughtered every other member of the royal family, right down to his mentally handicapped third cousin-in-law-twice-removed, leaving only one survivor. The only family member that survived is the current Shogun, Shiranai vi Kaminari, who was saved when his nursemaid lied to the Crown Prince and told the man that Baby Shiranai had choked on his own meconium after birth and thus perished. So what’s the point of this sordid story? That right now, unless Shogun Shiranai marries and has a male heir, there are no directly-descended other members of the royal family.
“This doesn’t actually give Hayata-sama the right to claim the throne, however, even if Shogun Shiranai suddenly dies childless. There are many other nobles and Daimyos who are actually ahead of Shin in the order of succession, and he would have to eliminate all of them before he could be considered the rightful candidate. Since he’s approximately number thirty-three in line at the moment, that’s a lot of bodies. But it could be done, and he could be recognized, as would the person who might succeed him. That was the legal argument, by the way. There are other academics and even some members of the Temple of Raiden, who would argue that Kumogakure should be the capital of the nation based on moral or philosophical grounds.
“Their main thesis is that the inhabitants of Cloud enjoy a far more progressive and some would say, ‘enlightened’ lifestyle than any other people in the nation. Remember that this country is a feudal monarchy. The vast majority of inhabitants are in fact land-bound serfs who have very few rights and almost no education, to the point where they are essentially de-facto slaves of the nobility. As a side note, these are the people who view shinobi as living gods, and will likely kowtow in your presence. And even those people of the small middling class of merchants and other educated figures, are still beholden to the whims of those who are decreed noble by birth or by political favor. Yet in Cloud, shinobi of all ages and ranks intermingle freely with the non-shinobi of all social classes, and there is much less indentured servitude here for the civilians than there is in any other part of the nation. There is basically more equality among individuals within these walls, which is the point that Kousaki-kun brings to the table. If Cloud became the center of government, it would detract greatly from the influence of the Council of Nobles and perhaps even cause wide-scale social changes throughout the nation,” he said, taking a swig from his flask. “As far as Santaru-kun’s other assertion about going missing, well, I’ll address that in a bit.”
“The rest of you raise all valid, all correct reasons, on the other hand, why perhaps the hegemonies of Cloud and Raiden no Me should be kept separate. Shimete-chan actually raises the simplest and yet perhaps most powerful assertion of all, which is that just as you all have sworn an oath to defned Kumogakure and serve the Raikage, the Raikage has also sworn an oath to defend Lightning Country and serve the Shogun. He is certainly not the Shogun’s lap-dog, but at the same time, he is also a member of a definite hierarchy. The culture of our nation places great emphasis on the simple concepts of honor and duty, and to ignore that is to ignore the basic foundations of our society at large. Even if shinobi live very differently from the rest of the nation, they are still a fundamental part of it.
“As Narashi-kun and Shimete-chan correctly assert, any direct military action, either by Kumogakure against the Bakufuu or the Bakufuu against Kumogakure, would be absolutely catastrophic for both. And, as Narashi-kun correctly brings up, the economic and logistic costs would be greater than anyone’s ability to pay. Where would the weapons come from if the great crossbolter forges of Tanegashima were to be flattened? Where would the food come from if the rice paddies of Asuza field were to be razed? And who would pay taxes to pay your stipends and contract fees if the commoners are more interested in planting improvised explosive devices along the roads than going to work? The only possible outcome of a civil war between shinobi forces and non-shinobi forces, is complete, mutually-assured destruction. There would not even be a country to be targeted by foreigners – more like a smoldering pile of rubble that no one could actually inhabit or even desire to claim.
“And this fact is actually well-known by the leaders of both institutions. Each party - Kumogakure and the Shogunate – does its part to maintain the delicate balance between the fact that the village must serve the nation and that the nation can easily be destroyed by the village. Takahashi-chan and Kousaki-kun thus raise the point that in actuality, this is very easily accomplished simply because of the vast amount of work that each side must perform just to keep their own affairs in order, and the inexperience with dealing with the others’ affairs. Shinobi live differently than non-shinobi – the lifestyles, social expectations, and level of responsibility are worlds apart, and thus ‘it takes one to know one’ applies well here. An interesting tidbit of information is that the current Shogun, Shiranai vi Kaminari, is a former shinobi. He was abducted at the age of eight and spent the next few years being raised as a mednin within the walls of the village, unbeknownst to all others. The recent civil war we had was only stopped because the Chancellor, Tachibana Ami, was able to track him down on a hunch. But as he has embraced the role of Shogun, Shiranai-sama has also chosen to give up his knowledge and prowess with the chakra-based arts in order to concentrate on his true responsibilities.
“In the end, there will probably always exist an uncomfortable détente between Kukogakure and the Shogunate, with varying levels of tension. This is the world that you as future shinobi are going to have to become very comfortable with, both within and outside the village. Never forget that you are an outsider even when you are an insider,” he said, clearing his throat.
“The last point I want to address was actually brought up by Santaru-kun. Which is that obviously, there are shinobi who sometimes act entirely differently, and whose actions are considered to be treason by both Lightning Country and Cloud. These are obviously, missing-nin. The most famous examples in recent memory are of course Hayata Makoro, who played a large role in starting the recent civil war, and Yukimura Enishi, who is the assassin of the Raikage Kagetsu Kiyo and a currently active terrorist. But besides these two, there are many more throughout history.
“Throughout your time at the academy, you have no doubt sworn more oaths of service and fealty than you have thought possible, and when you are a genin, you will swear many, many more. For many of you, you cannot fathom why anyone would raise a hand against your home, your Raikage, and your country. Many in this room view missing-nin as worse than demons – they are trash to be eliminated and disposed of, even if they come from your own families. And yet I wonder if many of you understand who they are and why they do what they do, and how they live.
“Keep in mind, that I am in no way encouraging anyone to go missing. Rather, I am bringing up the point that you cannot fight an enemy effectively if you are unwilling to understand them. So, the last question I have for the group is this: why would someone go missing, and what, perhaps, would make you personally consider going missing? If you are uncomfortable speaking the last part, that is fine, I will not pry – but it is important to think about nonetheless.”
