Konohagakure (MJ)

Leader:

**Konohagakure no Sato** (木ノ葉隠れの里, *Village Hidden in the Leaves*) is the capital city-state and chief hidden village of the Land of Fire.

It's also 1 of the Five Greater Shinobi Villages; as such, its village head bears the title of Kage. More specifically, its village head bears the title of Hokage.

## ***Climate and Geography***

The Land of Fire is a region of hills located between the mountain ranges of the Land of Lightning, the Land of Wind, the Land of Iron and the Land of Waterfalls. As the lowest region contained within these mountain ranges, besides Land of Grass and Land of Rain, the Land of Fire receives a considerable amount of both rain and winds, though most of the humidity is drained away to the more low-lying Land of Grass and Rivers in the form of vast rivers and swamps or is precipitated in Land of Rain due to the wind pattern.

While the Land of Fire was once also a mountain range that linked them all together, due to its location and lower altitude by sheer happenstance it received the brunt of the erosion by wind and water of the region, and due to the rivers flowing to either land of Rivers and Land of Grass overtime the mountain range was grinded down from sheer rock into hills topped with dirt. Allowing for plant life to flourish there, compounding the erosion further and creating a cycle whereupon more and more forest grew.

Notably because it is so hospitable to life, it is also hospitable to both giant animals, monsters and Biju serving as a natural defence and deterrent for invasion. Due to the abundance of life in the region it is a region more abundant in Natural Energy than the supermajority of the world, housing within itself a large amount of Sage Animals and Sage dens, as well as Ninja Summons while promoting the growth of new plant life.

To combat the giant or powerful herbivores and omnivores that roamed inside it the plants within the Land of Fire also evolved to grow to giant sizes, to multiply fast, and to promote Forest Fires that kill off animals and help new seeds bloom. The end result of this natural arms race is the natural occurrence of giant and regular **Wildfires**. Due to the abuse of controlled forest fires by the ninja of Konohagakure in warfare, the dangers of invading it during Wildfire season and the coloration of the land in Fall it was nicknamed the **Land of Fire**.

The terrain of the Land of Fire while technically composed of the same unchanging hills, due to forests that cover it is hard to traverse and map accurately. The foliage, in the giant trees and the litter accumulated in the ground over many years makes mapping based on altitude impossible, and due to the abundant Forest Fires and the rapid growth of new trees landmarks can change from year to year.

Being neither too humid, too dry, too hot or too cold and abundant in plants the Land of Fire presents a Temperate Climate, extremely fertile grounds, and experiences all 4 Seasons with pronounced effect: Receiving snow in Winter, flowers blooming in Spring, wildfires in Summer, and the entire land turning brown, orange, red and yellow in Fall.

## ***History***

### **Pre-Settlements : Before 7621 ASA**

The Land of Fire was settled in by humanity only semi-recently in comparison to the Land of Wind due to the overabundance of monsters, giant animals and biju in the area. Though while settlements did not exist in this region before the creation of Ninjutsu humans did cross the area to hunt, scavenge and gather and such archaeological findings can be found.

After the creation and spread of Ninjutsu, refugees of conflicts in other settlements and even active settlers from other settlements moved into the Land of Fire semi-permanently. Though there were a large number of communities in the Land of Fire due to the abundance of resources they were all tiny, insular, nomadic and aggressive towards each other due to danger posed by the wilderness they lived in.

**Fire Release** was the preferred and most ideal release for these early settlers since it packed the most punch, scared wild animals, helped cook and could create clearings. Similarly because most animals in the forest relied on their brute power to fight **Yin Release** became prized as well to keep animals away rather than to fight them directly, while Yang Release was specialized in the land to counteract all the poisons. Water Release naturally fell to the wayside due to being less directly useful due to the relative abundance of water, wind release would attract rather than repel predators with its noise and by carrying scents and earth release could often not be used at all due to the strength and depth of the roots of the trees. Kekkei Genekai were neither selected for or against in this early time.

### **Community in the Forest: ~0 AF - 1421 AF**

With the progress of technology and ninjutsu the communities within the Forest would slowly combine into bigger groups, but never so large as to settle in a fixed location. These groups came to be known as the first proto **Clans**, and after centuries of close contact and cultural diffusion while each clan saw itself as unique and separate from each other they came to have a common religion and beliefs and even trade relationships.

Unifying them culturally was their worship of and the respect they paid to the Sage and Ninja Animals as protectors of nature and assistants of humanity. They also revered the Kyubi as a sort of wrathful monster to be avoided, that could be appeased with offerings sometimes but was otherwise unstoppable. Abusing the markings of the Kyubi, summoned animals and sage animals to denote territory that other animals would stay clear of the first actual permanent settlements were established for the first time. And with the use of Fūinjutsu and Genjutsu they grew into the first proper "villages" despite their surroundings.

To promote their growth and to ease their life these villages also established roads through the forest to promote and funnel commerce across the continent. This created stronger bonds and eventually some clans even began to actually ally with each other, while other fought even more fiercely, notably the Senju and Uchiha.

### **The Sealing of Kurama: 1421 AF**

In an effort to unify the Land of Fire, **Madara Uchiha** and **Hashirama Senju**, two ninja of the Land of Fire, allied with the proto-villages of Kumo, Kiri, Suna and Iwa in the plan to seal the Biju and destroy Whirlpool, however unbeknownst to the other villages the two had no plan to commit to the genocide of the Uzumaki and instead planned to bring them in to serve as the Jinchuriki of the 9 Tails and incorporate them secretly into their village.

Together the two fought with and managed to dominate and seal the Kyuubi inside **Mito Uzumaki**, though her clan was kept secret to the world at large. Using her as neutral party they sealed the Demon Fox within herself better than any jinchuriki in the lands, and the friends managed to unify the clans of the Land of Fire under the banner of the Village Hidden in the Leaves through their shared appreciation of Mito's sacrifice to seal the Demon Fox.

With Madara's apparent ability to manipulate Biju, Hashirama's unlimited Chakra Reserves and the new Jinchiruki of the Nine Tails the Village Hidden in the Leaf became a beacon of hope, and **power**, and quickly grew into a massive metropolis as all the clans flocked to the new village, while in secret the brothers saved as many people from whirlpool as they could to hold their end of the deal with Mito.

### **Hidden Leaf Village : 1421 AF**

The first few years of the Konoha were prosperous but the old feuds between the Uchiha and Senju was not truly over, and some clans of the Land of Fire still refused to join the Village.

The marriage of Mito with Hashirama, the "crowning" of Hashirama as Kage by the community and the assimilation of the majority of the Uzumaki into the Senju, bolstering their numbers and strengthening their bloodline, caused the Uchiha to demand for the next host of Kurama to be an Uchiha and for Mito to lose her status as a Jinchiruki; or for the Uchiha be given a Biju themselves as well, as they saw themselves as having gotten the worst end of the stick despite doing as much work if not more than the Senju and Uzumaki did.

Even if this demand broke the pact, in an effort to keep the tenuous peace within the village Hashirama and Madara prioritized internal stability and attempted to acquire a second Biju for the Uchiha Clan despite the consequences, hoping that their idealism for peace would win out in the end. After agreeing to seal the Biju within a Fuma so long as the secret of the new Jinchuriki was kept from the other villages they set out to hold their end of the deal and ensure that Konoha lasted forever in peace, one that would spread to the rest of the world.

But Tobirama had other plans, the hatred he bore was too great and so he sought to protect his people in the only way he knew how: by sabotaging the capture of the second Biju with a double agent within the Fuma. The duo of legendary shinobi fought and sealed Chomei within the double agent Fuma that under orders of Tobirama attempted to assassinate the weakened two after their fight. Due to the scale of the consecutive battles the other villages caught wind of the existence of a second Biju in Konoha's possession, while Tobirama allowed for the secret the Uchiha promised the duo in secret to be revealed to the world at large. In one fell swoop Tobirama pinned the plot on Madara and Izuna, lied to Mito about who truly killed her husband, turning her against the Uchiha who earlier had demanded for her to lose her status as Jinchiruki, and united the rest of the clans in the Land of Fire against the Uchiha who caused for the world to break out in the First Shinobi World War.

### **First Shinobi World War : 1431 AF**

With the Breakout of the First Shinobi World War, because of the plot Tobirama himself engineered, he employed Mito as a devastating weapon against greater and lesser villages, and he had the Uchiha exiled or killed for crimes against the village and against "world peace". If not for the fact that Konoha was everyone's enemies at this point the Uchiha would have been exterminated but Sunagakure took them in as refugees.

Using the danger of the sealing knowledge of the saved Uzumaki the leaf managed to survived the war, primarily through the use of deception, strategy, and intel gathering. Despite their central position and the loss of some of their firepower due to Tobirama's racism, through clever strategy the leaf lasted and even some would say prospered. And with the creation of seals and barriers around their territory Konoha became impenetrable and nearly impossible to actually find despite their seemingly unprotected location.

Tobirama ruled for many years as Hokage, even after the end of the war, trying his best to finally kill the Uchiha that had escaped his grasp at the onset of the war. Conducting proxy wars with Iwagakure and Sunagakure for the sole purpose of killing all Uchiha from the face of the earth, while mastering and creating new jutsu to ensure the village would eventually rule uncontested.

In his years in power he created the impure world reincarnation, flying thunder god techniques, and invested heavily into research on Hashirama cells and the potential of Yang Style Jutsu for immortality. His abuse of his research for war earned him a great number of enemies, and his willingness to experiment upon captives (especially uchiha), made him feared even within the village.

One day however Tobirama was killed in an ambush where he was supposedly burnt alive.

### **Third Hokage - Second and Third Shinobi World War**

With Tobirama's death the Third Hokage mantle was taken in by Katō Shimura (火藤 志村, Flame-Wisteria Village-Purpose) who reformed the entire system of military and strategy of Konoha by changing the public strategy so that rather than ruling through fear he brought "peace" and "comfort" to the ninja and civilians of Konohagakure.

He started by publicly focusing the efforts of the Senju towards Medical Ninjutsu, seeing the potential contained within the often ignored Yang Style, specifically in its use to raise better and healthier ninja. He would combine this good publicity of Konoha as the best place to live in by also projecting cultural power to the other villages by electing charismatic and renowned ninja as his right hand men, while simultaneously spreading rumours in other lands to hype up the Konoha shinobi heroic deeds, bringing in civilians and aspiring lesser clans of smaller villages to Konoha where their skills could benefit Konoha instead.

In the background however Kato established the organization of Root within the Anbu, which was composed entirely of handpicked ninja with great potential, raised and trained personally to serve as Konoha's most secretive agents, branded and endowed with seals that would make them unable to ever reveal a secret of Konoha. None of the members of Root had a reputation or fame, with some being born within root iself, and as they were raised from nearly birth in secrecy insuring no information on them could even leak until they were already Tokubetsu Jonin level, and thus were the perfect Ninja. Furthermore, through exploitation of the Yamanaka's, Hyuga's, Inuzuka's, Aburame's and Nara's clans hidden jutsu Kato was able to secretly and subtly control all information flowing into, out and around Konohagakure and even most of the Land of Fire, establishing a nearly perfect police state.

Through the use of Root for subtler missions, the proliferation of Konoha's medical division and the exploits of the charismatic ninja raised in the academy Konoha positioned itself as an elite and welcoming village while simultaneously siphoning manpower, intelligence and men from the more brutal regimes of the villages around them.

Like his predecessor, Kato Shimura orchestrated the Second Shinobi War intentionally and secretly, by inciting rebellion within the hearts of the lesser villages so that the enemies of Konoha would lose territory, manpower and resources that Konoha could claim, while simultaneously funding lesser villages and rebellions while providing with them the knowledge of the Uzumaki Sealing Jutsu so that pseudo-jinchuriki could be created and abused knowing that Konoha could undo them at will and suffered no risk of retaliation except from the greater villages. If not for Takigakure and Iwagakure Konoha would have remained unscathed from the war.

He would continue to sow the seeds of the Third Shinobi World War as a means to accumulate wealth across the continent without scarring the greater villages, planning to pillage and claim the loot of the lesser villages in secret with the war, while directing all blame to them as well.

### **Fourth and Fifth Hokage - 1524 & 1525 AF**

When he saw that he would die of a chronic disease in the middle of the Third Shinobi World War, he left his position to the rash, young, naive, yet charismatic **Kūkō Namikaze** (空港 波風, Heavenly-Harbor Wind-Wave) which became the Fourth Hokage. While he boldly joined the front lines to raise the morale of his troops, knowing that his death was imminent regardless.

The Fourth would die within 1 year of his reign in a skirmish against Kumogakure's Jinchuuriki by going into the frontlines directly and foolishly after being recommended by the council handpicked by the previous Hokage.

The Fourth's Death allowed for **Niji** (虹, Rainbow), the actual and secret successor of Kato to use the death of the Third and Fourth as a martyr and reason to instil unfavourable policies to win the war that the population would not only welcome but also support willingly. While simultaneously luring the other villages into a false sense of security by making them believe that Konoha had lost 2 of its 3 strongest assets.

In a series of battles whose details were never truly understood Konoha completely destroyed all attempts to undermine its position in the world stage, and survived the Third Shinobi World War as well, stronger than ever.

### **Modern Times - 1541**

Konoha now stands as a seemingly average village, secretly using the money they hold to undermine the other villages with proxy wars, while more actively sabotaging them with Anbu and Root Agents.

### **Hokage**

**1st Hokage : Hashirama Senju**
 *God of Shinobi***2nd Hokage - Tobirama Senju**
 *Creator of 10.000 Jutsu***3rd Hokage - Katō Shimura**
 *The Boogeyman***4th Hokage - Kūkō Namikaze**
 *Konoha's Golden Flash*
### **Ninja Clans**

* **Senju** -
* **Sarutobi** -
* **Akimichi** -

* **Yamanaka**
* **Nara'**
* **Hyuga**
* **Aburame**
* **Inuzuka**

## ***Military***

Konohagakure's military might is derived from...

### **Jinchuriki**

Through the use of Uzumaki, Yamanaka and Senju Forbidden Jutsu Konohagakure managed to split Kurama the Nine Tailed Fox into 9 Lesser Kitsune Biju referred to as Osaki (尾裂, Split Tail). Each Osaki is roughly 1/9th as strong as the actual full Kurama with most of the full Fox's abilities at a weaker level.

Each of the tails are sealed inside different Root Ninja, the **Osaki-Ya**, their identity kept entirely secret to everyone but the Hokage except for their exclusive use of Fox themed masks during missions and their special uniforms, so that other Anbu know who to prioritize in case of an ambush or a failed mission.

Through the use of Inuzuka Hidden Jutsu the Osaki-Ya are able to combine together into one individual to increase their combat ability, and also temporarily restore the nigh full power of the Nine Tailed Fox. With the use of the combination jutsu Konohagakure is able to keep the facade of an Hatake Ninja ("formed" by combining any 2 of the group together) as being the Jinchuriki while keeping the true nature of their Jinchuriki secret. To further confuse situations, secret descendants of the previous Jinchuriki are also employed with the same attire to serve as decoys, and further confuse on whether or not Konoha has deployed their Jinchuriki or not.

In this way Konoha is able to split and spread the use of its Biju in multiple fronts simultaneously while making tracking of its public jinchuriki pointless. It abused this strategy to ambush and kill many powerful shinobi secretly during the third great ninja war.

Osaki Jinchuriki

## ***Locations***

### **Forest of Black Leaves**

An ancient location within the Land of Fire, it is a section of Forest that has been set on fire by Amateratsu and has been caught in perpetual fire for millennia. The vegetation in this region has adapted to grow leaves faster than the lingering Amateratsu can consume them, while abusing the free heat and energy generated by Amateratsu as a way to boost their ability to synthesize extremely chemically intensive compounds as well as a deterrent for herbivores to eat them.

While the ecosystem within the Forest of Black Leaves is stable, sometimes animals, people or winds will carry the amateratsu to nearby ecosystems causing cataclysm. The Senju have long since tried to put out the Amateratsu for good, and their century long feud with the Uchiha can be traced back to the conflict that created this forest and destroyed the Senju's first settlement in the Land of Fire.

## ***Trivia***

* The Third Hokage is portrayed by Matoba Seiji.
* The Fourth Hokage is portrayed by Ivan Karelin.