24 Peace or Armistice (3)

Peace treaties are but the cherry atop the crap cake that is war.

The closure to a war, the proclamation of everlasting peace between two or more nations. By definition, it was the time when the 'status quo' is brought back only to be twisted to favor those that won a war. The victors ruled over the losers, and impositions to compensate the grave losses were meant to be forced down the throat of those that caused them in the first place. While one would consider this quite jarring as a view of peace itself, there was nothing wrong in denouncing what was the truth: the strongest survived more and better, and thus won the life lottery.

Iwa and Kumo were both nations that, while they had signed an alliance during this world, didn't have the capacity to work together about the diplomatic side of things. Sure, they were both fighting the same foes, but their interests were different as new nations. First came their people, then the others, and, due to this, the signing of the treaties unfolded differently compared to what I had imagined. Iwa was forced to deal with a combined Konoha-Suna diplomatic envoy, their demands influencing them and… Amegakure. Despite the lack of direct involvement during the war, Suna brought with its diplomats some compelling proof that the use of the lands by the border to try to expand their range of operations was due to Ame's complicit allowance. This meant that Ame had taken part in the war and thus had to pay for this. The representatives of the tiny village were shocked by this take, but couldn't do much when both Suna and Konoha had more than enough troops in the reserve armies they had left to garrison the occupied area to actually beat them into an agreement.

A complete treaty established the cession of almost half the former territory of Amegakure between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, with Suna gaining the most due to the well-received need to expand on arable fields to sustain its already-struggling economy. Looking at this issue, I couldn't help but wonder if providing them with a solution regarding their water problem would actually prevent them from turning against Konoha in the future. A plan for the next months for sure, something to keep me creatively busy so to speak. When it came to Iwa itself, a genuine problem came to be in the form of territorial acquisitions. With no claim in the Land of Earth from neither Konoha and Suna, there was no reason for them to actually go through an attempt to 'colonize' those areas. Instead of providing Iwa with legitimate reasons to rekindle a war in the future, the territorial exchange happened… with the intent of weakening the grip of the Earth Daimyo.

Representatives of Ishi no Kuni (The Land of Stone), Kusagakure, and Takigakure were contacted and asked to join the negotiation table. They were promised slices of land as the main goal of this move was to empower those smaller nations that had been rather favorable to the war situation. The requests were all greeted positively and Iwa found itself signing a treaty that empowered those nations at the borders that were once looked upon by their expansionist view as viable targets after the war.

I couldn't believe it myself, but the First Shinobi War effectively created the concept of 'Pillow States', with the elaboration of satellites that were dependent on our economy to become the elements that would guard our borders with Iwa… since it was their land they would have to protect. It was like the creation of Belgium through the Congress of Vienna, a counter to French Expansion and a weakening process for Holland. Monetary compensation was actually moderate as to not shatter the national economy, a warning that I had expressed through Madara when it came to this kind of part when he decided to send a letter about the matter.

If Iwa's economy fell and collapsed, there would be way too high chances of radical factions to take over and pretty much prepare the grounds for a new war. I knew Iwa was still going to be a bitter village by the end of the day, but the last thing I needed was an angry painter getting fiery with his speeches and somehow becoming the newest Tsuchikage through a coup. With Iwa's effective defeat confirmed into history, it was time to address Kumo and what could be done about them. Proposals were first defined before the established meeting, with the main goal being to neutralize any chances of Kumo ever becoming a prosperous threat after this war. Economically fine? Sure, but they had to be curbed from ever recovering any powerful economy out of this. At least, not without 'diplomatic help' from other nations in exchange of friendlier relations.

Tobirama initially planned for something 'lenient' considering how Kumo's warfare hadn't been as gruesome and brutal as it had been in Iwa, but his stance changed when reports flocked about the presence of Kumo-financed mercenaries harassing and killing some of our soldiers during the ceasefire period. A revised proposal was then revealed to have some changes, most of which I had offered to Tobirama as a way to 'gain land' but not as an outright conquest. It was going to be a little upsetting on my historical perception of this concept, but I wanted Kumo to know that any sneaky attempt we caught meant a harsher punishment on them. Kiri was, as predicted, delighted by the plan I had created, something that really surprised me since I wasn't sure that they had been told I was the one behind that idea. Uzushiogakure was a little less pleased, but still quite happy with their acquisitions.

With this set of treaties prepared, I decided to… 'go behind' my superior's decision to form a unified peace treaty and ask Madara for assistance for a little stunt I had planned to do. Nothing that was meant to humiliate Tobirama, but rather a little idea I came up with about the situation with the mercenaries. After our mind specialists had cracked onto our newest prisoners' strong wills, we had the full scale of the situation regarding Kumo's trickery. Some of the businessmen of the Village had managed to bribe some of the ninjas in the reserves to go and retrieve some of the Chinoike Clan members out of their exile in the Valley of Hell. The Clan had been sent there by the order of the late Lightning Daimyo's first wife after one of their members, which the Daimyo took as second wife, after her husband died of mysterious circumstances shortly after taking in his second wife. The court believed the story and an edict granting the woman the power of regency over the heir and next Daimyo culminated with the clan being exiled on that horrible land of utter death and despair.

With that in mind, I decided to check on same-ranked officers if they were willing to 'bestow me' with the duty of bringing forth demands about the 'grieving families' of those that died or were wounded terribly due to this attack. I remembered how the mere mention of mutilation reminded me of what happened to Seitaro. The blue-haired guy tried his best to keep strong around the others, but I saw fit to keep around and talk to him. He broke into tears two hours after being around the command tent. It was a terrible sight considering the extent of the injury had almost killed him, but I didn't do anything to create further discomfort to him. Hugging did good, words seemed to leave less of an impact on him as he was terribly taken by what happened to him. I knew he was going to make it, with enough therapy, but I was also concerned by two other members of the team that were traumatized by the entire event.

Kagami was terribly quiet when I visited him the moment I heard he was awake. He was smiling, he was showing genuine displays that I knew him for when it came to cheerful reactions… but there were moments where he got incredibly silent. There was this lost gaze on his face as if he had seen something that just tended to appear when he wasn't engaged in an interaction. And his situation slightly worsened a strange case going with Reira. She was absurdly… tense. I caught the girl jumping at minor approaches even when she was at the camp to rest. At first I thought it was just simple trauma that would have gone away during the peacetime… but then I realized one thing. Each time she snapped and reacted aggressively to some physical interactions like patting her shoulder or even waving close to her face, her sharingan would activate. But it wasn't her normal sharingan.

Madara was quickly alerted about this matter, and he seemed genuinely concerned about it himself when he realized where the problem was in the new power developed by Reira. Her Mangekyou Sharingan was… born through extreme trauma, and it had memorized a good part of the moment and left it stuck within her mind. Her reactions were, by all means, going to take years to get under control by the girl himself and I knew that was going to be a strenuous activity for herself and… me. There was a catch within that trauma. My mere presence seemed to bring her to a calmer state of mind. The theory was that, within her trauma, I was the one that represented the calm and the peace for her to work properly. It might sound like the beginning of a strange love story, but I could easily bring up the counterpoint on that front: She was a traumatized girl with no capacity to hold herself from snapping in a dangerous reaction without me around. I worried that this was going to be something to be wary about back in Konoha, but Matatabi argued that her parents' constant monitoring should dilute the problem and add more to solving the problem Reira now had to face for a long while.

Hirotada was the least troublesome of the bunch. He felt guilty for what happened during that mission, but he seemed to really stop from hating himself when I took him aside and gave him a stern talk. I wasn't too harsh about it, but I knew that I was being forceful about something he needed to know before he got in a situation where he would remember this with eternal shame. He did what he could do, he managed to do his best to subvert the ambush and help most of his group through a situation that wasn't expected. Had it been me, I recalled mentioning to him, I would have probably done worse by endangering myself. When he tried to bring up Matatabi, the Bijuu swiftly disposed of that weak effort by reasoning how the Chinoike Clan's Doujutsu would have been proved troublesome regardless of me having her or not.

With those cases in mind, my main goal for these negotiations was to put the Raikage in the position he had to go through the additional point I was going to present to the table. With the day finally coming and having been picked by both Hashirama and Madara as a representative for the military staff. With a list of names confirming my points, I proceeded to march beside the Uchiha patriarch until we arrived together with Tobirama and the other diplomats sent by Konoha to our current destination. A small fishermen village that had been picked by Kumo as a good midpoint to reunite. To further legitimize the 'good will' of the meeting, Kumo allowed Konoha to send some ninjas to inspect the area together with ninjas from Kumo itself. Everything was set to be devoid of traps that could highlight a chance of ambush… and I was surprised when, as we arrived at the house of the mayor, the building that had been chosen for this meeting, someone of importance had also decided to take part in this reunion.

Lady Kozakura, Regent of the Land of Lightning, looked fairly beautiful despite being slightly older than Mito. She kept a severe look on her face that just threatened those that were hiding anything from her, like a stern grandmother that just judged at first glance and then muttered a quiet comment about it. I felt a little tense when she spared me a look from her seat, curious about the presence of a child on the frontline but also respectful enough to not question it as we all took seats on the other side of the table meant to divide the Kumo team from the Allied one. It was Konoha, two representatives from Uzushio, and two commanders from Kiri.

The introduction between the Second Raikage and Tobirama was one driven by a sense of genuine politeness and respect for each other's abilities. While I didn't know much about the 'Second A', I still knew he was the guy that ended up training the Third Raikage, and I knew that wasn't a claim one should just ignore due to how strong the man was even in his old age. With everyone seated, Tobirama started the meeting by allowing the Raikage to read the papers that would have concluded the war at once. He was soon frowning over some of the more unusual demands, but it was clear that he couldn't exactly blame the harshness nor the 'creativity' behind what the territorial gains were going to be.

There wasn't going to be a complete surrender of land, but rather a take over of the major ports of the land into a diplomatic-economic construction meant to establish tariffs that were to grant benefits for Kiri, Uzushio and Konoha. It was a partial surrender of Kumo's trading to former enemies, but it also guaranteed the chance of protesting any stressing of the trade beyond 'human limits' but allowed for the nations to meet to further confirm the validity of such claim or not before implementing changes. I had this idea while thinking of the imperialist notion of 'Concessions', similar to the ones China was imposed to have but… without the military control and the ownership over these territories.

The Second Raikage also agreed to the monetary compensation, seeing it fitting with what Kumo could release with its current treasury… but as the final points of the meeting started to draw after two hours of grueling listening, I decided to make my move.

"Senju-dono, if I may, I would like to bring up a topic that I've been asked to bring forth by all officers of our military staff," I spoke up, drawing the attention of the major players at the table. Tobirama looked surprised, a little doubtful but… ultimately trusting when I sported a determined and confident look. I had proven many times now that I knew what I was doing when it came to going beyond my 'boundaries' regarding war, and he decided to give me a hint of trust in that regard due to this.

"You may bring forth the topic you've taken to this table, Shimura-san."

I nodded, standing up and holding close the papers where I had the culmination of reports that had been unfolding for a few weeks now regarding the mercenaries' situation.

"As of the last two weeks, the time needed for a date for this formal proclamation of peace to be established, preceded by an equal amount of days spent in an equal and mostly properly-maintained ceasefire, I have to report with a serious and truthful tone that our side of the front has suffered multiple attacks that led to roughly a hundred deaths and four hundred mutilations at the hand of attackers that came from Kumo's side of the line," I remarked, already noticing some diplomats ready to scoff and protest these words, but I decided to give them nothing by skipping to the next part of the message. "We have concluded, after capturing plenty of these attackers, that the official rule of the Raikage was not responsible for these attacks, but that someone, within Kumo, had seen fit to fuel money and resources into bringing out of the Valley of Hell experienced members of the former Kumo's Chinoike Clan and set them to attack and try to disrupt the state of ceasefire from Konoha's side of the battlefield."

Bringing up the clan's name seemed to gain a livid look out of Lady Kozakura's face. I could tell that the reminder of her husband's passing had stuck with her and now she felt compelled to adopt a more fitting approach to this development. She spared me a scowl and ultimately demanded one simple thing. "And do you possess proof of such a claim, young man?"

I nodded. "We have about two dozens of able men and women who have served as part of the harassment group. We would be more than happy to return those to Kumo's troops plus a list of names that were brought up by the prisoners regarding their backers and those that plotted for this event to have never happened."

As I stopped with my response, I noticed the woman taking a moment to think about this and… adopt a more stern look, this one aimed at the Raikage as he spared me a surprised look at this discovery. I knew that, politically-speaking, this was a bad situation for him as it meant some of the bureaucrats were fighting to keep this war going despite the conditions the soldiers were in. Not only that, but they went against his direct orders to prepare for peace and did nothing to prolong the conflict any more than it was.

"Young man… your name, apologies if I mistakenly pronounce it, is Shimura Danzou, correct?" The Regent inquired with a fierce tone.

"That would be my proper name, Lady Kozakura," I replied politely and the elder nodded.

"By my order, I demand that the list of names will be used as the foundation to meticulously investigate the extent of this unwelcomed treachery, Raikage-dono," Kozakura ordered with incredible anger dripping from her words. "All those that have been discovered as part of this heinous plot shall be executed for high treason and betrayal of their country and village."

Normally a Kage would have argued about the direct order of having members of their village, of their fief, executed by the order of the Daimyo but the Second Raikage merely nodded in agreement as he knew that it was something he would have done regardless of the order, but which order now meant he had high legitimacy to press this action to the maximum of the extent. Everyone looked agreeing to this new addition… but I wasn't done.

"Also, I wish to extend two extra points that would barely impact Kumo's current state of affairs, but bring forth the ideal possibility that this war wasn't one driven by scorn, but by promise. By fairness, rather than greed," I spoke up again, remaining as fierce and unbreaking as possible with my voice. "First is that the money taken by those behind the treacherous attempt is mostly given to those that were injured heavily by these attacks and to the families of those that died due to this circumstance. I have a list of names that I have been helping compile through the initiative of my fellow officers as we couldn't forget the honorable sacrifice made by those men and women."

This time I could see some reluctance in the Raikage's face, but he still nodded slowly at this first demand. And with that, I stepped up to bring up the next one.

"Second, I wish to… ask Kumo to formally apologize to the grievances of those that were killed by this attack, that the condemnation of such deeds to be exposed publicly as Kumo don't recognize these individuals as part of Kumo anymore."

That was way lighter than my attitude would have given out, yet I had one last thing to bring up.

"And in that regard, I wish to extend my own good will over the normalization of relations between Konoha and Kumo through this personal letter that I wish for the Raikage only to read," I muttered with a sigh. "This is but a minor fragment of what war is like from my perspective, and I wish to show this to the Raikage as the only way to start anew after what happened in this conflict."

There was some hesitance when it came to giving out a paper like that to the Raikage, a few guards worrying that it was one of my 'infamous' seal tricks. Yet it wasn't, I had genuinely written a letter and mentioned it to no one as… it was personal. It had to gain value through the only reader that it was going to find.

Madara looked stunned at this development, with Tobirama more curious than else since he gauged the decisive strength I had exerted through my speech and how it would have impacted the treaty into a positive outcome. The Raikage still reached for the letter as I leaned towards him to offer it to him and, once he got hold of it, he carefully stood up and started to read it on his own, with his back turned and in complete silence. The following ten minutes were some of the longest I had to experience, but perhaps worthwhile considering what I knew was written in that letter and what kind of effect it was going to leave on the tall man. He stood silent and with stiff shoulders for a while, eventually carefully folding the paper once he was done reading and returning with the paper folded in a careful and ordered manner. Once he was sitting back on the table, his gaze was upon me and I could tell his expression was hardened by a mixture of personal shame and genuine guilt.

"Your name is Shimura Danzou, my troops took the idea of naming you the Konoha no Kuroi Oni," He brought up, taking a moment to let these words settle.

Black Devil of Konoha, how fitting.

"Yes, after reading these words I can't help but feel like this moniker falls short of addressing your full self. A Black Devil you might be during wartime period, but I can sense this would fail to approach the degree of… passion you have for life, and your earnest desire for peace," He finally added and ultimately he nodded. "Thus, from now on, I deem you worthy of the title of Sensou no Tenshi for your will of War clash harmoniously with a truly good soul."

I was tense when the man concluded that sentence, and I could only nod at the unexpected take on this response. I wasn't expecting a new title to be christened out of this circumstance, but I was more baffled by the fact he literally called me the 'Angel of War'. Seriously, that wasn't something I had planned, but his next words elevated the main goal of that action.

"Still, I agree to your request. Peace here shall forever be known as the peace to a war that wasn't driven by hatred, but by the wills of two nations at odds in upsetting circumstances. Let us try to build something out of it."

And hook, line and sinker!

With that proclamation and the signing of the peace treaty, I had done two things that Tobirama was partly going to take credit about while leaving me to enjoy some good rep from his older brother due to the final end of that message. Peace has been reached, and this time, no war shall be created out of unequal treaties. And as this entire day came to an end, Madara decided to ask me something simple but that felt really heavy to elaborate.

"What did you write in that letter?" He asked, his emotions tied between concern and uncertainty.

I merely sighed and gave him a calm look. "Sadly, nothing that I can tell to anyone else."

In fact, the only few words I could bring forth if pressured just enough would be the last few sentences of that letter.

I want to see home, to see mom, to tell her that I am fine and that her son isn't going to die at 9. I want to tell her to stop crying while she writes the letters meant for me, that her worry is no more needed.

I believe, Raikage-dono, this is a wish you and I can live for as I know I'm not the only one from Konoha, from Kumo, from Kiri and Iwa, that wants only to be back there and tell our dearest family:

"We are back and, despite the cruel war, hate didn't win over our spirits."