Merging Sai and Yamato

What if Sai and Yamato were combined into a single character?

The boy who would become “Sai” was a civilian child from the Land of Fire who was orphaned in one of the conflicts between Konoha and Kumo following the Third Shinobi World War. He was retrieved by Konoha’s Root division of Anbu who would regularly sweep through urban battlefield to recrruit children to train children into shinobi with absolute loyalty to Konoha. Sai proved to be particularly talented among the younger recruits and quickly excelled.

When Root was officially disbanded by the Third Hokage and its remnants were forced to operate underground, Danzo took more extreme actions to strengthen Root in response to their lost resources. One of these was an experiment using the cells of the First Hokage to reproduce his Wood Release in another shinobi. Most of the test subjects didn’t survive and only Sai was capable of manifesting the kekkei genkai. The results of these experiments were recorded for Danzo’s personal gain in his plans to become Hokage.

From that point on, Sai underwent the most extreme kinds of training to harness the power of Wood Release, using the scrolls that Senju Hashirama had left behind in case anyone else was ever able to follow in his footsteps. He was partnered with Shin, another survivor of the experiment who hadn’t been able to adapt to the kekkei genkai. They were meant to undergo that training ritual that Danzo had copied from the Bloody Mist which would force trainees to fight one another to the death to finally kill all of their emotions.

However the after-effects of the experiment on Shin caused him to sicken and die before they could participate. Nevertheless, Sai had impressive emotional control without any known lapses in the field so he quickly rose up in the ranks under Danzo’s personal tutelage.

During the Konoha Crush, Sai was kept in reserve to neutralize Gaara of the Desert as a last resort. His abilities were judged to immature to deal with a Tailed Beast as well as broadcast the reemergence of Wood Release to other nations. Fortunately, Uzumaki Naruto’s actions made his intervention unnecessary.

When a lead to the location of Orochimaru and Uchiha Sasuke was discovered after Team Kakashi’s confrontation with Akatsuki, Danzo saw this as a chance to act. He convinced the Honorary Advisors to include Sai as a member of Naruto’s four-man cell in negotiations with the Hokage, revealing that his Wood Release would make him ideal for keeping the Jinchuuriki. At the same time, Hatake Kakashi was personally treated by Tsunade upon his return to help him recover in time for the rendezvous with Sasori’s spy.

Sai’s secret objective assigned by Danzo was to analyze Naruto’s abilities as a Jinchuuriki and use the intelligence gathered from the spy to eliminate Sasuke as a threat to Konoha. During the mission itself, he used a Wood Clone with most of his strength invested in it to restrain the Four-Tailed Naruto until it was destroyed in the attempt, revealing that the real him had gone to join Orochimaru for his true mission.

However the events of the mission and his interactions with the team caused him to shift priorities and begin to rediscover the emotions that he had buried. Afterwards, he requested that he remain as a member of Team Kakashi for the sake of observing Naruto and preventing him from causing harm of future missions.

It was this – and his growing desire for closeness with his teammates –  that led to him participating in Naruto’s training to create the Rasen Shuriken by using his Wood Release to prevent the Nine-Tails’ chakra from interfering. It served as training for Sai himself by increasing his ability to suppress Tailed Beasts which he never had the opportunity to truly practice before, and using his abilities to truly help a comrade was a novel experience for him.

Sai continued to fight alongside Team Kakashi and came to see his team and even the rest of their peers as valued companions.

Rebuilding Hebi

How should Sasuke’s team have been created?

Sasuke never intended to work with anyone else in his quest to kill Itachi.

He severed his bonds with his comrades when he abandoned Konoha and believed himself stronger because of it, never making any allies or friends during the following years. The only bond left to him was one of hatred between him and his brother.

But the years he spent training under Orochimaru’s tutelage showed him all kinds of twisted experiments and suffering victims. He had intended to kill Orochimaru from the very beginning but for his peace of mind he decided to destroy the Hidden Sound. For that purpose, he researched the Living Corpse Reincarnation and kept track of all the hideouts including their manpower, location, facilities and purpose.

Three years later, Orochimaru faced Sasuke in the ritual chamber of Oto’s headquarters and shed his skin to finally possess his perfect vessel. Sasuke attacked first with the ninjutsu that he had secretly developed himself and Orochimaru fought back with his true body, snapping Sasuke’s nameless sword between his fangs and poisoning him with his blood to begin his hostile takeover.

The next stage in their battle took place in the spiritual realm where Sasuke used the power of his Sharingan against the eight-headed snake aiming to consume him. He was able to suppress Orochimaru’s chakra and remain in control of his own body, instead trapping him within the cursed seal and returning to the physical world.

All that was left of Orochimaru was the corpse of his true form and the Sword of Kusanagi which Sasuke took for himself. The sound-nin who had arrived to reinforce their master stopped in their tracks at the sight of these and didn’t dare stand in Sasuke’s way as he left.

In the following days, Sasuke sent a snake summon to Konoha with the intel he had collected over the past three years including everything that would allow them to find and destroy Oto’s bases across the continent. Some of them he kept secret in case he ever had need of them but nothing that had been important to Orochimaru’s operations.

Having broken his ties with Oto, Sasuke planned to travel around the continent and track down everything related to Akatsuki so that he could find his brother. However his plans were derailed when he was tracked by Yakushi Kabuto.

He had expected that he meet him again as an enemy but rather than seek vengeance for Orochimaru, Kabuto wished to join him. His unstable sense of identity from years as acting as a spy in various countries was severely shaken with the death of his master and his reaction was to cling to Sasuke instead. He had abandoned the hidden village himself after recovering from his shock and tracked Sasuke down.

Sasuke had no desire for a companion but Kabuto made a compelling argument about his experience with Akatsuki, the talent he had for intelligence gathering and the benefits of his medical skills. Moreover he knew of a hideout that was secret to even Sasuke; the one for researching the cursed seal and housed the branded subjects.

The cursed seal hideout was overseen by Karin, one of Oto’s elite shinobi and a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan. She was given the responsibility of being their warden for her mastery of fuuinjutsu, her chakra sensing and her Adamantine Sealing Chains which allowed her to restrain even the strongest prisoners in the base.

And the most dangerous prisoner in the base was Juugo, the origin of the cursed seal’s transformation, who had willingly placed himself in captivity in the hope that he would be freed from his murderous impulses. Instead Orchimaru used him to constantly fight his “copies” and other shinobi he had captured to learn the extent of his powers.

Kabuto believed that Sasuke would see the value in their abilities. Karin because of her unsurpassed chakra sensing to help her find targets and Juugo as a powerful weapon and a useful scout since he could communicate with animals. Sasuke had no such intentions but decided that he would see this secret base for himself.

When they arrived, the base was in full revolt. Sasuke and Kabuto joined forces with Karin to subdue the prisoners that had gone wild and lost themselves in the madness of the cursed seal’s power, slaughtering each other and everyone around them. Sasuke even summoned Manda to hold off their numbers, dominating it with his Sharingan to prevent it from turning on him or eating all the prisoners.

Juugo himself had lost himself entirely in a berserker rage from all the fighting but Sasuke proved capable for suppressing this with his Sharingan. While others like Orochimaru and Kimimaro had been strong enough restrain Juugo when he went on a rampage, no-one had ever been able to tame his blood lust the way that Sasuke could.

Sasuke took pity on Juugo when he witnessed his true personality and suggested that he could come along with them so that he could prevent him from being a danger to himself and others. Karin too, having no purpose left or even a home anymore, asked to join him as well which he accepted for her skills. He realized that he had inadvertently created a full shinobi squad and decided that he should make use of them.

Together they travelled to an abandoned town to visit an arms merchant Sasuke knew of and they purchased weapons, clothes, armour and food for their travels. In preparation for the times ahead, Sasuke gave his team summoning scrolls in case he should ever need to retreat from battle. Armed and ready, Sasuke named his team Hebi in light of their origins and began their mission to hunt down Uchiha Itachi.

This mission consisted of several months in search of anything that could tell them about the mercenary group such as clients who had hired them for missions, locations they had visited, individuals who had worked for them and the Jinchuuriki they had been targeting.

Their first major breakthrough was a sighting of two Akatsuki in a nearby town which led to the team confronting Deidara and Tobi. Sasuke took on Deidara himself while his teammates were led on a chase by Tobi. When Deidara blew himself up, Sasuke was able to retreat inside the mind-controlled Manda and was then summoned back by his team who had moved out of the blast range during the chase.

Afterwards Kabuto healed Sasuke’s injuries before they moved out again. They found a lead on Itachi due to Karin’s long range sensing and Juugo’s animal communication and finally managed to track him down. Before going off to face his brother, he thanked Hebi for their aid and asked them to prevent any interference in his battle. As a result, Hebi got into a confrontation with Team Seven as they try to reach Sasuke, only breaking it off when the battle between brothers came to an end and they retreat.

Unknown to anyone, a fragment of Orochimaru manages to escape the battle and flames of Amaterasu in pursuit of a body.

When Sasuke learned the truth about his brother, he asked the three of them if they were willing to follow him in another mission. They all agree and Sasuke declares that he would attack Konoha. However Uchiha Madara convinces Sasuke to align with him first and work with Akatsuki to capture the Jinchuuriki and gain their aid in infiltrating Konoha and killing the elders.

Sasuke agrees but the team dynamic begins to show strain when, after awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan, starts to become more ruthless in contrast to his earlier acts of mercy. In their capture of Killer B, he viciously breaks the minds of the Kumo-nin he interrogates and shows uncharacteristic anger during the fight itself against both B and his team.

This reaches breaking point during the Kage Summit where he slaughters the samurai, tries to kill every ninja that crosses his path and then abandons his teammates in pursuit of Danzo. That was when Hebi died as, once again, Uchiha Sasuke severed his bonds in the name of vengeance.

Ironically, the only one who remained by his side was Uchiha Madara who Sasuke had not forgotten had his own part in his clan’s genocide.

Sages and Senjutsu

Natural energy is the energy that is created by the air, water and earth of the world. It exists anywhere and everywhere, constantly circulating throughout the planet as a part of nature itself.

Senjutsu is the art of mixing natural energy with one’s physical and spiritual energy to create more powerful chakra which can be used to strengthen themselves and the techniques they wield. Those who use this art are called Sages.

As natural energy is far more potent than the energy produced by any living being, learning senjutsu requires enormous chakra levels for the body to withstand the presence of natural energy without being overwhelmed and dying from the effort.

To sense natural energy, one must remain perfectly still so that they do not disturb the flow of nature with their presence as living creatures always do. By achieving a level of stillness that makes their existence as natural as the air and earth around them, nature flows undisturbed and they can finally perceive its presence.

Once they can see natural energy, they can draw it to them and absorb it into their body. If they draw in too little then they cannot create senjutsu chakra, and if they draw in too much then its potency transforms their body in an attempt to find balance until they literally become a part of nature by turning to stone. And it is nearly impossible to control natural energy while moving because it disturbs the flow of energy which their divided attention cannot guide, inevitable causing it to overwhelm them.

Only by achieving balance between natural energy and their internal energies can one create senjutsu chakra and thus become a sage.

Sage Mode

Sage Mode is the state achieved when a sage empowers themselves with senjutsu chakra.

It circulates throughout their entire chakra pathway system to activate the body by significantly enhancing its strength, speed, reflexes, senses, healing and durability as well as strengthening every aspect of their ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu as well. Fire is hotter, water is fiercer, lightning is faster, wind is sharper and earth is harder. Illusions are more tenacious in binding the victim’s senses and leave a deeper effect on their psyche. And physical blows are easily capable of shattering steel or collapsing buildings with their might.

Just as chakra makes a ninja superior to ordinary humans, senjutsu chakra makes a sage superior to ordinary ninja.

A sage’s connection to natural energy amplifies their innate sense of chakra to a level beyond the ability of all but the most skilled of sensors in both range and accuracy. At close range it serves as a type of threat perception which aids the sage by helping them predict their opponent’s moves to avoid incoming attacks and set up the ideal counterattack. At long range, they can perceive the chakra of anyone within several kilometers at the very least and perhaps surpass even that with training and focus.

And as a sage has mastered the ability to absorb natural energy, they can directly manipulate the natural energy around them as well. They can use it as an extension of their own bodies to attack beyond their physical reach, infuse it into their surroundings to control the terrain or interfere with its flow to bend the atmosphere to their will.

Sage Mode itself can only last for a limited amount of time depending on how much senjutsu chakra is created and how quickly it is used up. The more chakra they use then the sooner they reach their time limit but because it is constantly keeping the body in its activated state, even doing nothing will eventually cause Sage Mode to be released if they don’t absorb more natural energy.

Sages don’t mix natural energy with the total sum of their physical and spiritual energy, instead only mixing as much as they can safely keep in the balance like only creating as much chakra as needed to use a technique. So if they run out of senjutsu chakra, they can usually create more to re-enter Sage Mode several times before they would be in danger of running out of chakra unless driven to exhaustion. As their mastery of senjutsu develops then they can increase how fast they absorb natural energy, how much senjutsu chakra they can create and how efficiently they can use it to enter Sage Mode instantly and make it last for as long as possible.

Because the requirement of remaining still to absorb natural energy is incredibly dangerous during combat – ideally requiring them to withdraw from battle – sages would normally fuse with a summon animal capable of senjutsu to gather it on their behalf and provide them with an unlimited source while staying on the move. This allowed them to remain in Sage Mode almost indefinitely if they managed their stamina efficiently by taking advantage of senjutsu’s enhanced recovery power to replenish it during battle.

One who successfully uses Sage Mode always have their eyes change colour and gain ring-like markings around them. However if the sage has too much natural energy in their senjutsu chakra then it causes the body to experience inhuman changes. Moreover, they potentially can’t create as much senjutsu chakra as one who can perfectly balance the energies and their techniques are slightly less stable but the difference is often negligible. And this form does comes with advantages as deliberately transforming the body can help aid them in battle.

And not everyone who can create senjutsu chakra is able to achieve Sage Mode. Some sages are only able to draw in the bare minimum of natural energy necessary to create senjutsu chakra and so cannot create enough to infuse their entire body, instead merely having enough to power individual techniques.

Three Sage Regions

There are three mysterious and remote regions of the continent that host the only animal tribes who wield senjutsu: the toads of Mount Myoboku, the snakes of Ryuichi Cave and the slugs of Shikkotsu Forest.

They exist in lands which generate unusually high concentrations of natural energy, altering the environment in unusual ways which encouraged these animal tribes to make their home there. It helped make their kind sensitive to its presence to aid them in mastering senjutsu for centuries.

Each tribe may teach senjutsu to their chosen summoners which is the most reliable means of becoming a sage among those who know of it. Armed with centuries of knowledge, they are quite capable of training their summoners in their personal styles of senjutsu. And by signing their respective summoning contract in blood, the summoner gains a unique connection with the animals which influences how natural energy affects their body.

Gamamaru the Great Toad Sage, Hakuja the White Snake Sage and Katsuyu the Endless Slug Sage were once the students of the Sage of Six Paths after they gained intelligence from the blessing of chakra, and it was from him that they learned the secrets of nature. Their deep connection to the world’s natural energy lengthened their lives far beyond the usual, allowing them to live for nearly a thousand years and pass on their wisdom.

Toad Senjutsu

The toads teach their summoners to meditate and achieve oneness with the natural world to sense and absorb natural energy, typically making their training the slowest of the three animal tribes when taught the normal way. They are known to make their students balance upon a sharp peak until they learn to stop moving and synchronize with the flow of nature around them, paving the way to them sensing its energy and then drawing it into themselves.

It is taught by the Two Great Sage Toads, Fukasaku and Shima, who are the only toads to have learned from Gamamaru himself and have lived for over eight centuries as masters of the art. Even the warrior toads of their tribe learn senjutsu from them.

However the toads are also able to take advantage of their habitat’s natural environment as well. Their mountain produces a special liquid that they call toad oil which attracts natural energy like a magnet and provides a shortcut to sensing and controlling it. By rubbing the oil into a person’s skin, the natural energy is automatically drawn into their body regardless of their will which helps them learn to feel its presence inside them. But it carries the risk of overwhelming them with the energy before they learn control and transforms them into a toad. Fortunately the toads possess a tool that can expel natural energy from the body when it strikes them. Toad oil only exists on the mountain because of its unique atmosphere and rapidly evaporates if taken elsewhere.

Toads teach their sages a fighting style known as the Frog Kata which uses the natural energy around them as an extension of their own body, increasing the range of their blows in a way that can’t be detected or predicted except by one who can sense natural energy as well.

Jiraiya of Konoha was the first ninja to become a toad summoner after the hidden villages were built and his mastery of their techniques led him to be known as the Toad Sage. He was one of those who simply wandered into their home when he lost himself in the mountainous region for a month. After becoming a valued summoner of the toads and learning numerous techniques from them, he learned senjutsu from Fukasaku and Shima as well.

His Sage Mode distorts his physical features with toad-like attributes as he could never perfectly balance natural energy with his physical and spiritual energy, something which always made the state unappealing for him to use. Furthermore, his major weakness was the length of time it took him to absorb natural energy and create enough senjutsu chakra to enter Sage Mode which made it far too difficult to use in combat. His solution was to rely on the Two Great Sage Toads by summoning them directly into his own body to gather natural energy for him. It still takes time to gather the chakra needed to summon them both but it is nevertheless faster than meditating for natural energy and means that he can still move and fight. Even though Jiraiya never quite mastered the art to perfection, he was nevertheless considered one of their best sages and was truly formidable with its power.

Namikaze Minato was Jiraiya’s successor as both a summoner and a sage. Towards the end of the war, Minato learned senjutsu himself and was even able to balance his natural energy without gaining toad-like attributes unlike his mentor. However he was slow to gather natural energy and couldn’t create quantities of senjutsu which made it too incompatible with his speed-based fighting style, making it a skill he rarely used. These are deficiencies that Minato could and would have overcome with training and experience but unfortunately he died before he had the chance to truly master its power.

The latest in this line of sages was Uzumaki Naruto who trained in senjutsu after Jiraiya’s passing and soon proved himself something of a prodigy in the art, whether it was because his body was already used to handling powerful energy, his spirit was inclined to harmonize with nature or something else besides. He learned how to sense and absorb natural energy at an impressive speed (with and without toad oil), perfectly balance natural energy with his internal energies and creating more senjutsu chakra than most could from the beginning.

As a Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, he encountered an unexpected hurdle as he couldn’t fuse with the toads to allow them to gather natural energy, drastically limiting how lont he could sustain Sage Mode. His attempts to collect the energy while moving failed but he overcome the problem by using his shadow clones to create senjutsu chakra for him and dispel when needed. He could use two of them for that purpose while restricting how many shadow clones he could use in total but this made it a viable option in battle for him. In time, Naruto learned how to enter Sage Mode with greater speed and extend its duration until switching in and out of it in combat became quite easy. And then Naruto mastered an more powerful form of senjutsu…

Snake Senjutsu

The snakes decide whether someone is worthy of senjutsu by having the White Snake Sage inject natural energy into the summoner through its fangs. If the summoner is able to withstand the potent energy then they are accepted without reservation but if they succumb and transform into a snake then Hakuja devours them whole. Those survivors are then taught to sense, absorb and balance that natural energy themselves.

As creatures without limbs unlike the toads, snakes teach their sages to bring the environment around them to life and control it as if it were an living organism, shifting and reshaping itself according to their will, turning the terrain to their advantage to help them fight and travel.

Orochimaru of Konoha inherited the snake summoning contract from his deceased family who had been allied with the animals for several generations, adopting a snake-like appearance and skills to fight alongside them. They even customarily tattoo markings around the eyes of their children made to resemble those shown in snake sages but with deliberate differences out of respect.

Although he inherited that contract, it wasn’t until he was a grown man that he ever ventured to Ryuuchi Cave himself in search of the power of senjutsu. He survived Hakuja’s test and learned to create senjutsu chakra but unfortunately  lacked the strength to harness Sage Mode itself and thus left him as an imperfect sage. But this did not dissuade him and Orochimaru sought to overcome this with a kinjutsu that allowed him to possess other bodies and a cursed seal based on senjutsu chakra.

But it was his spiritual successor, Yakushi Kabuto, who became the sage that dreamed of being. Kabuto experimented on himself with Juugo’s cells so that he could absorb natural energy while moving and then learned senjutsu from Hakuja, allowing him to utilize Sage Mode without any of the usual drawbacks and become one of the most dangerous shinobi alive in the Fourth Shinobi World War.

Slug Senjutsu

The slugs (or slug, in truth) envelop the summoner inside their body and then steadily pour natural energy into them to adapt them to its presence. As long as they survive this process and aren’t broken down by the energy and fluids, they are taught how to sense and absorb natural energy by the Endless Slug Sage.

Slugs teach their sages to wield the natural energy around them like a shield rather than a weapon. Lacking a body meant for fighting, they instead  disrupt living organisms that mean to attack them by using natural energy to deflect incoming attacks away from themselves or gather and harden it to protect them outright. Combined with the inherent durability of Sage Mode, there are few things a slug sage cannot endure.

While the slug tribe is in fact a single entity divided into many clones, only those who travel to the Shikkotsu Forest to meet with the core of Katsuyu’s being are given the opportunity to learn senjutsu. Tsunade intended to become a sage just like her teammates but from the very beginning she lacked the chakra levels to even attempt to learn it, a trait unfortunately shared by both of her apprentices. She had hoped that utilizing this more powerful chakra would allow her to create her theoretical masterpiece, the Creation Rebirth which regenerates rather than heals, but in light of this she instead created the Strength of a Hundred Seal which could store huge volumes of chakra to power that ninjutsu.

Human Senjutsu

Humans do not need to be contracted to animal tribes to learn senjutsu themselves. That is merely the most common means of learning the uncommon art. The Sage of Six Paths taught humans as well as animals how to become one with nature but few had the will or ability to learn, and generations of warfare meant much of that knowledge was lost.

Sage Mode works in the same way as it does for animal summoners, providing the same physical enhancements and empowered techniques. The only difference is that without the summoning contract signed in blood, the physical changes the sage undergoes are not influenced by that specific animal tribe. Instead their transformation is unique to the individual as they can adopt any manner of shapes that reflect that which can appear in the natural world. And if one perfectly balances the natural energy then the markings of a sage is the symbol of enlightenment over their temple and around their golden eyes.

The majority of those who learn senjutsu themselves – a remarkably small number even after centuries – are not shinobi but monks. Having devoted their lives to peace, spending days in meditation and contemplating the nature of the world around them, some learn to perceive the flow of nature and take it into themselves. Small religious sects are devoted to the art and there have been monks who have even secluded themselves in the most remote regions of the world to become one with nature. A few of these have even been said to have lived for centuries themselves as their mind and bodies benefited from the powerful energy.

Nevertheless they have been individual shinobi who have discovered the art for themselves over the ages. There was even a clan of shinobi who modified their bodies to passively absorb natural energy and instinctively generate senjutsu chakra without the danger of turning to stone.

Senju Hashirama was one of the most powerful practitioners of human senjutsu, second only to the Sage of Six Paths and his son. His Wood Release allowed him to use his chakra as a source of life to grow trees and all manner of plantlife, granting him a connection to nature that others could not share.  Once he understood the existence and natural energy and learned of the existence of senjutsu, he took the risk of training himself in the art and harnessed a power that was truly godlike.

Missing Advanced Elements

What could the last two advanced chakra natures be?

Frost Release

This is an advanced nature transformation that combines wind and lightning chakra to create and manipulate the cold.

Frost chakra is able to lower the temperature of anything it interacts with to extreme degrees, whether that’s the air, the earth, non-living objects or living creatures.

It can affect inanimate objects such as making bladed weapons vulnerable by cooling them until they become fragile and brittle, able to break with the smallest amount of stress. It can affect the surrounding atmosphere to create a zone of incredible cold that humans would struggle to survive in as if caught in a winter storm, or even the earth such as turning a marshy swamp or a lava pit into hard, solid earth.

The most obvious example of its ability is to change the state of a liquid into a solid via cooling such as turning water into ice. This overlaps with the Ice Release kekkei genkai but there are key differences between them. Frost Release cannot manipulate ice and only creates it as a byproduct of lowering the temperature whereas Ice Release can manipulate it and only affects the temperature as a byproduct of generating said ice. Furthermore, frost chakra can be used to freeze practically any type of liquid rather than just water alone.

But frost chakra shows its qualities best when used directly against a living target. At its lower levels, it can simply make the target feel incredibly cold as if experiencing a severe chill that makes them shake and saps their strength. This can be taken further by freezing the body tissues to render them numb as they lose all sensation and struggle to use their muscles and joints as frostbite sets in. Or they can outright freeze a human being solid so that they become nothing more than a lifeless, frozen statue.

This could be called the antithesis of Scorch Release which, in contrast, raises the temperature to generate heat, making them a unique pair among the advanced elements as two chakra types that work on opposite ends of the same principle. But as advanced elements do not have inherent weaknesses, a clash between Frost Release and Scorch Release of equal strength would result in them cancelling each other out rather than one overcome the other as opposed to a clash between Water Release and Fire Release for example.

Unsurprisingly, the Frost Release kekkei genkai is known to exist in the Village Hidden in the Frost.

Thunder Release

This is an advanced nature transformation that combines fire and lightning chakra to create and manipulate vibrations.

Thunder chakra is capable of passing through mediums such as air, earth and water to reach the target. It can generate earthquake by sending intense vibrations underground to shake the earth, knocking over their enemies and potentially tearing open fissures. It can bring down entire buildings by breaking down the integrity of their foundations until they collapse on themselves. Even weapons can be shattered by shaking them to pieces with the vibrations, protecting the user from kunai and shuriken. And is particularly effective on human targets as its vibrations can unleash havoc on their internal organs like the Hyuuga Clan’s Gentle fist, albeit through different means.

The vibrations provide benefits even when applied to the user’s body such as causing them vibrate with such speed that their appearance appears blurred to eye, making it difficult to see their movements. And when applied to weapons via chakra flow, it can make bladed weapons much more effective at cutting and piercing like Lightning Release itself.

But the most common and most powerful use of thunder chakra is when its vibrations are shaped into shockwaves to attack their enemy. Its effect can merely push the target over, repel them away or even tear them apart depending on what is being struck and the scale and frequency of the shock wave itself.

The man who would become the First Raikage was known as Thunderous A for his Thunder Release. He was one of those lucky few who possessed a kekkei genkai through genetic mutation rather than inheritance and created the jutsu style himself to devastating effect.

A master of taijutsu and ninjutsu, A combined his thunder chakra with close quarters combat to devastate his enemy’s insides with each blow, smash his way through any kind of obstacle or defense and even accelerate his body to extreme speeds by riding his own shockwaves in a straight-forward, highly destructive charge. His most deadly attack – the one he was named for, in fact – was a combination of Lightning Release and Thunder Release which fired a powerful lightning bolt through the target and then followed with a thunderclap that levelled anything that remained standing.

The Village Hidden in the Mist

The Land of Water is an archipelago to the east of the mainland. It has a mountainous central island surrounded by several smaller ones, and with dozens of unmapped islets scattered between them. Each island has its own traditions that their citizens stubbornly insist on preserving, creating a diverse culture reflected in the islands’ distinctive climates and terrain.

An unfortunate consequence of that diversity and the country’s distance from the rest of the continent was their countless civil wars. Natives treated those from other islands as enemies instead of fellow countrymen and hired shinobi clans to attack one another. The clans were given missions to sink ships, burn farmlands, and raze settlement in an ever-escalating feud between islands.

Where the other nations used shinobi to fight against others in their struggle for dominance, these islands all technically belonged to the same nation which only made their warring more senseless and brutal than most.

Among the clans that fought in these wars, it was the ones with kekkei genkai that were the most desired. Born with natural talent and unique powers, they fought innumerable battles against each other and other clans, causing untold devastation across every island as they carried out their missions.

The Kaguya terrified any who saw them tear out their own bones to wield as weapons and leap into battle with ecstatic bloodlust. The Terumi boiled their enemy’s flesh until there was nothing left to identify and filled the air with scalding steam. And the Yuki used the abundant waters of their nation against its own people as they transformed the land into ice and froze any living thing in their path.

These three clans were the most powerful weapons used in the wars, but the magnitude of their success had a terrible impact on their reputation.

Everyone who suffered at their hands despised them and anyone who used them learned to fear them. They spun tales of the kekkei genkai clans being bringers of misfortune responsible for the civil wars themselves, working to destabilize the country and profit from its destruction. The populace began to turn against these clans entirely as they became the scapegoats of the entire conflict, refusing their services and using “normal” ninja to attack their people and homes instead.

The Founding

Word of the two oldest and greatest ninja clans uniting, the Senju and the Uchiha, reached even the Land of Water as everyone scrambled to match this “hidden village” of allied shinobi.

The founder of the Village Hidden in the Mist was the First Mizukage Byakuren, a man who had earned a legendary reputation in his remarkably long life. He was famous for forging seven swords with unique abilities that he wielded in battle himself, and the skill and experience he had gained from living far past the average life expectancy of a ninja.

The Water Daimyo was convinced to allow the ninja clans to become the main military force of his nation and the Village Hidden in the Mist was built on its central island.

Kirigakure was immediately used to bring an end to the civil wars that had constantly plagued their country. With the daimyo’s blessing, Byakuren took the offensive against his enemies to violently quell any rebellion and bring all the islands under their control. It was a testament to the military might of a hidden village that a warring country could be brought to heel.

Naturally, the widespread resentment against the kekkei genkai clans made them prime targets as the hidden village was used to bring an end to their legacy. By the time the civil wars came to an end, the kekkei genkai clans had been all but decimated.

What remained of the Terumi and Yuki clans chose to go into hiding, disguising the truth of their origins by giving up their names and skills to blend into the rest of the population for the sake of survival. It helped to ensure the continuation of their bloodline through their descendants who inherited their power – which would unfortunately lead to many being killed out of panic and fear when their heritage is discovered – but the clans themselves had essentially come to an end.

Some, however, were captured by Kirigakure as the First Mizukage was not so short-sighted that he could overlook the potential of their abilities being used for the Land of Water’s benefit. They and their descendants would face discrimination in Kirigakure but would be much safer than those who would live elsewhere in the Land of Water, where the the people would grow up on that tales of the horrors of their kind and would react to their discovery with fear and hatred.

The Kaguya instead chose to retreat from the world without splitting apart as their pride and warlike nature made giving in anathema to them. They instead adapted by taking on whatever missions they could by those desperate enough to hire them and stealing whatever they needed from the country’s people to survive. They would continue to be a thorn in Kirigakure’s side for decades to come, albeit more as scavengers than true enemies.

Kirigakure’s role in ending the civil wars so effectively soon established it as one of the Five Great Hidden Villages as the remaining ninja clans flocked to their banner. But at the same time, their reputation, remote location and policies meant that they only had the most distant relations with other countries even in the new age.

The Wars

When Byakuren died during the First Shinobi World War and his blades were passed onto his disciples – those who would become known as the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist – he was succeeded by Hoozuki Gengetsu, the most powerful member of the clan of water shapeshifters.

The Second Mizukage’s mastery of the Hydrification Technique manifested as a mix of water and oil which paved the way to his infinite explosion ninjutsu, and he possessed genjutsu that few were capable of seeing through, let alone breaking. His nomination was almost surprising in how rapidly he gained immense popularity through his magnetic charisma and the clever tactics he utilized in the war.

Unbeknownst to everyone, including himself, Gengetsu was actually born with a kekkei genkai that remained dormant throughout his lifetime, as is sometimes the case. There is a certain irony in how his signature ninjutsu and summoning animal relied on the very element his kekkei genkai would have allowed him to control if he had ever awakened it. But, considering the discrimination that kekkei genkai users experienced even in Kirigakure, it is perhaps for the best.

After Gengetsu’s enmity towards the Second Tsuchikage culminated in a battle that killed them both, he was succeeded by the former right-hand man of the First Mizukage.

Known as the Dragon for his skill in single-handedly combining water, wind and lightning ninjutsu, and his draconic summoning animal, the Third had originally passed on becoming Mizukage in favour of Gengetsu whom he recognised as a greater leader than himself. But, he took on the mantle to lead Kirigakure through the Second Shinobi World War. His most famous act as the Third Mizukage was the successful invasion of Uzushiogakure and the Uzumaki Clan who, in spite of belonging to one of the lesser nations, had earned a impressive reputation during the first two wars.

And, then the Third Shinobi World War saw the Fourth Mizukage Yagura rise to power. He was the son of the Three-Tails’ jinchuuriki and a once-in-a-generation child prodigy with an incredible affinity for water ninjutsu and a brilliant, ruthless mind. It was believed that his father’s prisoner influenced his innate talent but, they later surmised, came at the cost of stunting his physical growth which plagued him with a child-like appearance even into adulthood. The distinctive scar on his left cheek was left by his own father when he lost control and left a wound that resisted the limited skill of his healer’s medical ninjutsu.

He was elevated to the position of Mizukage while still in his teens as his abilities made him as respected in his hidden village as he was feared by their enemies. Unfortunately, the Fourth Mizukage’s reign became known as the darkest period in the Hidden Mist’s history.

The Bloody Mist

Upon the Fourth Mizukage’s selection, he used the war to significantly increase conscription to acquire those who had been orphaned by the war and had no other prospects, who would be trained under a new academy curriculum. The training was brutal but effective, meant to rapidly create young ninja both deadly and loyal.

The most important aspect of this was the new graduation test revealed at the end of the first academic year that Yagura was in office. Every aspiring shinobi at the academy needed to kill a classmate in one-on-one combat to graduate, proving their worth by ensuring that any future mist-nin would be capable of the most ruthless acts for the sake of the village. The next generation of shinobi quickly gained a disturbing reputation and news of the ritual itself horrified the world to the extent that Kirigakure became known as the Village of the Bloody Mist.

Unfortunately, these changes also led to an increase in the number of deserters. Many of these were people who had lost family to the graduation ritual, were afraid of their children participating, or were going to be participants themselves.

In response, Yagura dedicated a regiment of Kirigakure’s Anbu to tracking and executing these individuals which he named the Hunter Corps – also called the Undertaker Squad by some – who would also destroy their bodies to protect the village’s secrets. The Hunter Corps were soon feared by rogue ninja and those considering defection themselves, but added to the village’s dark image with the collateral damage and innocent lives sometimes lost in their relentless pursuit as well.

This graduation ritual ended when Momochi Zabuza, a nine year old boy who would become known as the Demon of the Hidden Mist, killed over a hundred of his fellow students. The drastic loss in potential manpower meant that the practice needed to be discontinued to prevent further damages. Meanwhile, Zabuza was placed on a genin team with one of only students to survive his massacre after killing her own partner, Terumi Mei. Seeing a murderer like him rewarded for the deed, and then being forced to work alongside him, was what inspired her to become Mizukage herself and change Kirigakure.

The internal instability of the hidden village made it a target for Uchiha Madara.

Kirigakure’s leadership was manipulated into proposing an audacious plan to use the Three-Tailed Turtle against Konoha, like they once did to destroy Uzushiogakure. Yagura approved, leading to the capture of one of the Yellow Flash’s students, Nohara Rin, when he was on a mission. Once in Kirigakure, the beast was extracted from Yagura’s father and sealed inside her. They allowed her to escape when her teammate, Hatake Kakashi, came to rescue her and sent a contingent of shinobi to chase her back to Konohagakaure.

The plan was for Rin to return home unaware of her prisoner where the seal would automatically break, releasing the Three-Tails inside the enemy village to unleash untold destruction. It would mean the loss of one of their Tailed Beasts, but it would undoubtedly cause irreparable damage before it was sealed away or driven off that could change the war.

However, Rin learned of what had been done to her during her imprisonment and forced Kakashi to kill her. The team sent after her was massacred by an unknown assailant and the plan failed.

Fortunately, the Three-Tails soon revived and was captured by Kirigakure once more. But instead of sealing it inside a child like normal, Yagura, who was the most compatible with its chakra due to his heritage, chose to become its next jinchuuriki himself.

Confident in his strength as the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura confronted the Tailed Beast directly in a contest over its chakra and emerged victorious. He subjugated it and continued to steal the majority of its chakra for himself, allowing him to train with its power without the influence of its hateful will. He dedicated himself to perfecting his control over its chakra until he could use the full power of the Three-Tails. While he never became partners with the beast, Yagura’s mastery of its abilities meant that he was recognized worldwide as a perfect jinchuuriki.

After the war ended, Kirigakure never officially made peace with the others. This, coupled with the fear they had garnered during the war, made its diplomatic relations with other nations even worse than before.

Yagura’s relationship with his Tailed Beast was what allowed Uchiha Obito to exploit them. Obito avoided a direct contest of strength by ambushing the Fourth Mizukage and crushing his will with the hypnotic influence of his Mangekyou Sharingan as he had been taught by Uchiha Madara. With neither Yagura nor his beast protecting the other from genjutsu, both were overcome by Obito and became subject to his control.

Under Obito’s influence, Yagura appeared to slowly descend into madness. Citizens became subject to heavy surveillance, crimes rates rose as law enforcement grew increasingly mismanaged, seemingly loyal shinobi were interrogated under questionable evidence, the ninja-civilian relations deteriorated more than ever, and half of the strongest generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen died.

Even Utakata, the Six-Tails’ jinchuuriki and son of the late Third Mizukage, was driven to become a missing-nin and lived on the run before he was captured by Akatsuki years later.

The only ninja to learn who was really in charge was Hoshigaki Kisame who Obito recognised as a kindred spirit and a powerful tool, prompting him to reveal himself as “Uchiha Madara.” Eventually, he left the village to join Akatsuki in truth but not before wreaking havoc for the government by assassinating several important nobles and even killing the daimyo of the Land of Water, which labelled him an S-rank criminal.

The enduring Kaguya Clan saw this as an opportunity and launched all-out assault on Kiri where every man, woman and child capable of fighting broke through the village’s defences and started to slaughter the entire populace with the power of their kekkei genkai. It would later be known as the Kaguya’s Kamikaze.

Even the Kaguya too old or too young to fight were hunted down and slaughtered, and the sole survivor would later die before reaching adulthood. The bloodline still lived on in those who had abandoned the clan over the generations, but the Kaguya Clan itself was extinct.

The last notable event of Yagura’s reign was an attempted coup d’etat by Zabuza and Haku. For the sake of his own ambitions, he abandoned the village with his apprentice for several years to gather money and allies to take the title of Mizukage for himself. He returned and tried to assassinate Yagura but it ended in bitter failure and forced him to spend the next year on the run until he met his death in the Land of Waves.

The New Era

Yagura’s actions had made him increasingly suspicious to certain members of the village. Terumi Mei was one of those individuals.

She had suffered great stigma for her twin kekkei genkai, Boil Release and Lava Release, yet she had risen above all that in her impressive career and had garnered the admiration and respect of many of her fellow shinobi. She was a symbol for those who had discovered that they were descendants of the kekkei genkai clans as well such as Chuukichi, with parents or grandparents who had gone into hiding after the civil wars, and many of them gathered around her.

Mei had always been against the Fourth Mizukage’s brutal policies but had believed that he had at least acted for the sake of making the village. However, his actions over those last few years had only ever caused them more harm and she couldn’t bear to see it continue.

Mei shared her suspicions with Ao of the Hunter Corps who used his Byakugan – one he had torn from a dying Hyuuga in the last war – to observe Yagura’s chakra pathway system. His careful examination revealed that Yagura was under a powerful genjutsu, one of that even he could barely perceive, and believed that someone had manipulating his actions who knows how long.

With this discovery, Mei galvanized the mist-nin to join her in a uprising against the Fourth Mizukage to free Kirigakure of his tyranny. Manipulating events to get him outside the village to avoid immense collateral damage and limit the protection of his loyal shinobi, Mei led an ambush against Yagura with the rebel fighters and together they overcame his full strength.

Upon his death, Mei was selected to become the Fifth Mizukage and she immediately worked to bring enlightenment to the hidden village and push it forward from its bloodstained history. Tired of the infighting and ruthlessness of the Bloody Mist, many ninja were actually happy with the idea of such change.

She focused on rebuilding the damage to the village’s infrastructure, reworking the academy curriculum and even granted amnesty to shinobi who went rogue during Yagura’s reign as she recognized that many of them had only left because of his extremist policies.

However, there were still some who believed in the old regime and that Mei was destroying what made their village great such as the next generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. The only one of the Swordsmen to remain with the village was Hoozuki Mangetsu. He had a bloodthirsty personality that made him feared by many, but he was genuinely loyal to Kirigakure and believed that Mei was the best ruler they could have at the time. As he saw it, even men like him would be needed even with the direction she was planning to take the village given the world they lived in.

And as the only one who had proven capable of wielding all seven swords, hunting down the rest of the Swordsmen would allow him to monopolize the weapons for him and his brother who wished to become one as well. Unfortunately, his ambitions came to an end when an ambush ended his life and lost all but the Hiramekerai, an event that caused Suigetsu to abandon the village as well and practically ended the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

Today, despite having ruled her village during its weakest period in history, Terumi Mei has helped her hidden village come a long way from its past and she is the most loved and respected Mizukage to date.