Amegakure: The Scars of War

"Amegakure, Rain Country. And named rightfully so. Amegakure was blessed with the burden of handling the rains of the entire country. The same rains that led through River Country and provided Sunagakure with the water it so desperately thirsted for. It was the rains that provided the water in which the great forests of the Fire Country grew and the plains the jungles of Grass Country flourished. The life giving rains that had blessed the continent with the nourishment necessary to thrive was the cornerstone of the Hidden Rain village, but how ironically that the very blessing of rain was the curse of the country.

And how ironic still that the Country that so unselfishly gifted life to the world around it would also be the battleground for an entire war. The second of the great shinobi wars involving Konohagakure, Sungakure, Iwagakure, and Amegakure. It was a war, infact, that Amegakure brought upon itself. During the revolution of ninjutsu, where the religion brought to the world by a great 'Sage of the six paths' became a weapon for power, Amegakure's leader decided to continue to industrialize. He was convinced that this 'ninjutsu' was a farce, and that the future was in science, mechanics, and innovation. This man was named Hanzo, and he was the leader of Amegakure.

Amegakure grew in the time of peice, but when it became more and more obvious that industrialism had no place in the world of shinobi, the hidden village fell bellow the standard of the Five Great Nations. Because they invested so heavily in industialism and machinary, they found themselves deeper and deeper in debt. It was became so bad that Amegakure could no longer fund it's own growth. The Country of bountiful rain was slowly collapsing under its own weight. However, Hanzo, the leader and greatest shinobi of the Hidden Rain, decided that there was a way in which to fund their growth, and thus the growth of the entire country; weapons.

Like any other innovation of the world, ninjutsu, mechanics, etc., there were always oppertunities for war. And with wars, there were always oppertunities for investment. War was profitable, and Hanzo understood that. What he didn't realise, was the cost it would have on the country, and his people. By applying the rules of chakra to mechanics, many new invensions were created for use in combat, one of which being the breathing apperatise that Hanzo himself used. After being made, these weapons an abilities were destributed to the surrounding nations, and each nation hungry for position and power, happily took it upon themselves to buy these mechanised weapons. Up until now they had no clue that such things existed, and springs, triggers, traps, all chakra based, became popular. Amegakure funded war to fun itself.

With reverse engineering, Sunagakure was the first to make traps and weapons along with their own poisons into what became known as puppets, and these became a trademark of Sand ninja in the upcoming war.

But the most reckless of partnerships of Amegakure, was that of a group of nomads that required a land of their own. They planned to pay in rare minerals, gold, cash, power. More then they Amegakure could ever have imagined. And thus, they constructed a part of the Amegakure itself, that could lift into the sky, and fly. This became known as Sky Country. For man years, the sky-nin and Sky Country, remained hidden in the line of the cloud above Rain Country. The original idea, was that with a strong enough power source, it would be possible to attack from the sky, where no ninja could reach, and devistate the five countries in a single swoop. Kunai shooting guns, Mechanical wings powered by chakra, and many chakra based weapons would rain from the sky leaving both Sky Country and Rain Country, as the only two powers of the shinobi world. Finally... mechanics would trump ninjutsu, and Hanso, would be a hero.

However. Tension broke out when it became public that Amegakure was selling arms to the three surrounding great nations; Sungakure, Iwagakure, and Konohagakure. Each looked to the other to disarm, and when they did not, fighting broke out. A dispute between the nations that quickly turned to Hanzo and Amegakure. As a result, Rain Country was invaded from all angle, as it was the prime central location of the great nations. Hanzo struggled to defend his land, but under the force of the three great nations, the urban industrial hidden city became a battle ground.

Thankfully, there was a scapegoat. Sky Country used this as a chance to strike, thinking that under the cover of war and unstability it would be all the easier to sweep the continent with the destructive power of their weapons. However, with the emergence of this weapon and the sky country, the villages turned toward the skies. United against a great threat, the countries were forced to forget their own bickering, and there fighting in Rain Country, and focused on defeating the Sky bound Enemy. It was only two weeks later, that Sky Country collapsed, lost in southern Konoha. It was considered the end of Second Great Shinobi War.

But, Amegakure itself was devistated. It was tramped by war and all that it made itself to be through war was so quickly taken away by war. Hanzo was sparred, but those about him had lost confidence in him, and the would be hero, was now a failure. He surrounded himself by his most loyal of guards and burried himself deep into the remains of Rain Country. It would be the last time anyone would see Hanzo, as he was soon assassinated in the very village that he took refudge in. Amegakure and Rain Country rebuild, but without a leader, purpose, or position in the world, it was an empty shell of a hidden village, and those that lived there would look to the life giving waters, those that the sheltered the village, and blessed the village. They would look to the sky, to those same rains, and the would weep."

Vice smiled to himself as he finished the story. He couldn't help but look upward to that very sky. The billowing dakr cloud that bloughted out the sun. But he didn't weep. He understood the darkness of the sky. It wasn't weeping out of sadness. It was crying out of sadness. Finally, a hope had returned to Amegakure. "If only they understood you like I did..."