Chapter Text
Somewhere on the coast of Japan, there was a quaint little town called Iwatobi. It was a relatively recent addition to the country, with construction only being completed by 2013. At first, it was a popular tourist attraction; with its calm, coastal location and friendly community, it persuaded many vacationers into deciding to make it their home, and become full time residents. But eventually, with the newly rising popularity of Musutafu, Japan, as an alternative, more appealing tourist destination, Iwatobi was all but forgotten.
Despite this, Iwatobi still had a colorful, yet underappreciated, community, consisting of the few people who remained faithful to their fallen kingdom of a town. Their specialties consisted of their dishes centered on their locally caught mackerel, which came from the rich seas off the coast of the town, as well as their various swim teams, each trained from the same waters, in which the fish they ate, swam in.
However, despite what the description above tells you, there are even less people living in Iwatobi these days than one would normally expect from such a seemingly friendly town, as recently, countless formerly faithful citizens fled the town they had once devoted their lives to, in a mass evacuation fueled by fear. The cause of such a panic throughout a whole community is simple, the crime rate has literally exploded, and the criminals responsible just so happen to be particularly dangerous, to the point that even the police cannot stand up to them.
The reason of such a drastic increase of criminal activity is due to said criminals' tendency to remain hidden. Because fewer and fewer people acknowledge Iwatobi's existence nowadays, the criminals took this opportunity to make the town their hideout, exploiting the lack of people's attention to do the dirty work in private, without running the risk of getting caught. As a result of such uncontrolled activity, the impact of their crimes throughout the city have become too much to handle for even the most experienced officer. For every time they started to investigate a crime scene, there would be five or more new cases reported with equal priority to their predecessor.
Not that the police managed to solve any of said cases.
Due to the criminals seemingly omnipresence and slipperiness, being everywhere and nowhere at the same time, they might seem like they were actually ninja.
That's because they are.
Despite the word's association with the country, there aren't many ninja stalking through Japan anymore, let alone the rest of the world, and nowadays, the word has become synonymous with young boys, whose minds were set on becoming "cool" among his peers; anyone else, and they'll likely think that ninja are just a form of cheesy entertainment for children, and nothing more.
But in Iwatobi, being the last, if not the last stronghold for the ninja, the word retains the same power and intimidation as they once had, long ago. Just saying the word makes one feel like it could creep up behind you and take your like so quickly, you wouldn't even know what happened. And the actual ninja are just like that, but much more lethal.
In fact, in order to protect the rest of the world from having to suffer from the wrath of the ninja, the United Nations had to take drastic measures to keep a threat of this level contained. The exact location of Iwatobi has long since been purged from the records, and to prevent someone from stumbling into the town, or for someone else to stumble out, the country has built a heavily fortified barricade surrounding the entire town, with guards posted 24/7, all to make sure nothing gets in, or out.
Despite this, there were still a few people who remained as Iwatobi's citizens, though some were more willing than others. But no matter what the case, they were all quarantined inside "The Barricade", and could only leave if they went though a thorough, overly complicated procedure, in which you only have one chance of making it through. If they found just one thing that they find suspicious, regardless if it actually was, they would never allow you to leave Iwatobi; if they decide to let you live in Iwatobi is a different story.
Since very few people could afford to take the procedure, whenever it would be from a lack of money, or having too much to lose, almost no one went through with it, and virtually no one actually succeeded, and got to see the outside world once again. As a result, the people who currently live in Iwatobi are stuck there for the rest of their lives, whenever it be from natural cause, or from yet another assassination from the ninja.
The only way for one to escape, with their lives intact, is to wait, hoping that one day, the ninja would be, once again, just a part of history...