Shoji Occupation

### Place:

Earth Country, Fire Union, Lightning Country, Rain Country Water Country, Wind Country

### Battles

Liberation of Iwagakure, Liberation of Konohagakure, Liberation of Kumogakure, Siege of Magnhild,
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Battle of Magnhild
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 In the year 474 - 2nd of March - the Occupation, otherwise known as the Prohibition, dawned on the known world. A large military faction was granted and supported by the daimyo's to dismantle the Shinobi corps and every shinobi oriented faction and group. The man behind this whole ordeal was Shoji and his Prefects. The occupation can be seen as the result of the unrest, disdain, and fear of the corps and units of Shinobi in the military. After the Great War and the destruction it left in its wake, the majority of the population grew uncomfortable with the shinobi military to the point that a man from the Earth Country started to formulate a plan. In the year 468, Shoji had managed to build up a lot of wealth with investing in mining facilities and expanding his business. With his steady income, he started to invest in a personal force and begin his first phase.
Approaching the Earth Daimyo, Shoji was hoping for his approval and cooperation. His idea was to replace the shinobi corps with a more disciplined military that would make the shinobi corps obsolete. His troops were trained to use muskets - inaccurate short ranged weapons, but with a deadly penetrative force. The first demonstration, however, went all wrong due to a few muskets jamming. Resulting in that the Earth Daimyo didn't go with Shoji's plan. Over the two years, Shoji attempted to convince the other daimyo's in order to see his plans get some progression. All of his attempts, however, ended up being miserable failures.

Bitter and frustrated Shoji stopped approaching the daimyos. Instead, he focused on gathering ex-shinobi - shinobi who were either traumatised or disgruntled with the end of the Great War - and people who were more than willing to serve in this new revolutionary force. Several times the Earth Daimyo did warn Shoji and demanded the man to stand his own personal force down. Most of these demands were met with the exchange of large sums of money and iron, coal and steel supplies. Ironically this improved the economy of the Earth country, which allowed it to quickly recover from the defeat it suffered at the end of the Great War. Shoji's forces, however, started to expand quickly. At the year of 474, his plot would be revealed to all of the daimyos of the five great countries.

Showing a demonstration of his secret weapon - a massive airship, unmatched by any of the much smaller airships of the Lightning country's military - showed how the airship could level a large terrain to nothing. With his numbers and personal wealth, Shoji managed to thus 'convince' the scared daimyos into supporting him in his plan. The next weeks saw the daimyo's demanding their Kages to stand their shinobi corps and units down. From here on, it went quite differently depending on which area you look at.

## In the East

The Shoji Occupation of the Water country went without much trouble. The shinobi corps and units within the Water country stood down after the commands were given. Rika Suzu, the Fifth Mizukage at the time, cooperated somewhat with the occupation forces to establish order within the country. During the whole duration of the occupation, the Prefect in the country and the Mizukage cooperated, suppressing several small revolts. When the majority of the known world managed to overthrow the occupation, the Prefect decided to stand down with his forces

## In the North

In the Lightning country, the rebels went at it a different way. The Fourth Raikage followed the command of the Daimyo, but his niece and Raikage Assistant - Asami Sanosuke - decided to do the opposite. Many shinobi that was ordered to give up their weapons and told to stand down fled into the countryside. Ending up with assaulting supply lines and camps of the forces of the occupation with the aid of the locals that were growing worried with the increased cruelty. The Prefect that was supervising the Lightning country started to deal out harsh punishments more and more frequently, which led to further unrest. The aim was to discourage support for the rebels and force the rebels to stand down. The actual result was a mixture between the two as the rebels did manage to hold on to their numbers and slightly grew, yet didn't pursue as aggressively as they had done in the first few months. Eventually, the Lightning Country's Prefect started to become frustrated as the Fourth Raikage ignored an order to stand down.

This was because of the jinchuriki of the Eight-Tails, Midori Sato, happened to rampage in a chakra cloak state after a small ordeal with some soldiers. The Fourth Raikage managed to calm down Midori Sato, only to ignore the order to stand down as the soldiers wanted to arrest Midori. As Midori and the Fourth Raikage escaped, harming soldiers in their way, the Prefect ordered 100 men of the Sanosuke clan to be rounded up. After this was done the order was given to execute them all, resulting in a huge increase of unrest in Kumogakure itself. Asami Sanosuke used this chance to regain control of Kumogakure. The Chakra masts that were stationed in the city were taken out by unleashing a big wave of Bijuu chakra as Asami managed to 'convince' Midori Sato in cooperating. Afterwards, the rebels surprised the local occupation forces and took back Kumogakure. Though enthusiastic with their victory, Asami marshalled a force to march to the Fire country in order to relieve the siege at the Hon Estate/Magnhild.

## In the West

The Third Tsuchikage ignored the demand to stand the shinobi corps down. With several clans that were upset with the new demands and desire to reform society to something new, a revolt was born. Fierce fights broke out over the whole country between the occupation loyalists and those who opposed the new changes. Most battles went undecided as many metsuke - ex-shinobi - managed to lead the occupation forces to beat the shinobi rebels and their allies. At the height of the revolt in the Earth country, the rebels managed to retake Iwagakure. This success combined with the siege of the Hon estate/Magnhild saw to the decision of Shoji using his airship to attack Iwagakure, causing massive damage to the city.

The Wind country faced the Shoji Occupation with much resistance - similar in a way as the Earth country. The Wind country's rebels focused on guerrilla warfare in the desert region of the country. Though they were booking some successes, they were at a stalemate with the forces of the occupation. They didn't suffer much cruelty as most of the occupation's forces were orientated to protect their encampments and supply routes from the rebels that attempted to raid them. No large battles were fought in the Wind country between the two sides.

The Rain country (today is known as a province, due to being part of the Akinian Empire) rebels went a different route as well. Though the command had been given to stand down, a large number of shinobi and supporters decided to revolt against the occupation. Unlike many other revolts, the rebels decided to make Amegakure into a battlefield. Skirmishes happened daily between two sides. The occupation forces kept order and stability in a large part of Amegakure as well driving the Azure Tide - the rebel faction underneath the leadership of Soru Deshuga, that time present jounin commander - into a stagnation. As Ryuko Samidare managed to lead his own group of rebels against the occupation, the rebels of the Rain country managed to succeed. Though it did lead to the death of the Second Amekage, this loss was quickly recovered from as Ryoku was proclaimed by the people of Amegakure as the Third Amekage. Soru Deshuga was however imprisoned as he had conducted several crimes. One of the most notorious ones was to poison a large group of civilians to blackmail the occupation and their chakra (blockading) masts. Ryoku decided to then marshal a small army to contribute to the rebels in the Fire Union as he and others had heard about the Hon Siege. With the hope of managing to defeat the major force of Shoji there, Ryoku started the march towards the Hon Estate/Magnhild.

In the Fire Union, the revolt against the occupation took a different approach. Though the higher ups of the Fire Union commanded their shinobi corps and units to stand down and cooperate with the occupation, they were plotting from the start on how to overthrow them. The higher ups remained outwardly showing a neutral approach to everything, giving a false sense of security to the forces of Shoji and the prefect that was designated to oversee the Fire Union. In secret rebels were stationed and gathering supplies and weapons. Under the leadership of Hiron Hon - who was given approval of the higher ups - the rebels of the Fire Union launched several operations. Booking early successes, the next phase was the Hon clan entering open rebellion against the occupation. The rebels managed to draw a force to siege the centre of the Hon clan and culture, Magnhild - known as well as the Hon Estate. The old and stoutly fortified city became the centre of violence as the occupation's forces laid siege to the city. Rebels from the Fire Union as the Hons started to defend the city, luring more and more of Shoji's troops to be sent to aid in the siege.

This allowed the Fire Union's rebels at other positions across the land to operate against a much smaller sized opposition. Though the Fire Union's rebels managed to gain success after success, the Prefect decided to arrest the higher ups. With the higher ups being locked away as Hiron's family being taken into custody the rebels decided to aim to liberate Konohagakure. Managing to achieve victory after a fierce battle, the liberation of Konohagakure saw to it that the higher-ups took up command again. A force was gathered to march towards the siege of the Hon Estate/Magnhild.

## Outcome

The Shoji Occupation resulted in the old system being kept and followed throughout the known world. The weaponry of Shoji's forces had gained so much disdain that they were collected and destroyed - they had, after all, not proven to be that much more efficient than the arms and armour that are used in the present. Nex,t to that it made it quite clear to the clans as non-clan shinobi that they weren't the best of the best. Numerous defeats at the hands of non-shinobi forces made it clear that they had their advantages, but not overall superiority. This led many countries to develop civilian and military factions and corps that incorporated more non-shinobi to prevent another similar uprising. Some even debate that the result of the Shoji occupation saw the rise of the Fire Union's expansion as smaller countries afterwards joined the Union - including the Rain country - as well countries improving the discipline of their military.