Chapter Text
THE WILL OF STONE
The Will of Stone is pretty straightforward: it dictates that your commanders in general and the Tsuchikage in particular are all responsible for being completely aware of who you are, what you are capable of, and what you one day will be capable of, and that they will utilize that information for the betterment of the village. If you are of more use to Iwa alive than dead, then your mission parameters will be very clear about the point at which you need to cut your losses and abandon it; if a mission is of true critical importance, then you may be asked to sacrifice your ability and your potential in order to see it through. Iwa shinobi by and large have a great deal of trust in those who hand down their missions, because the associated threats and rewards are always calculated and they always know how much they should expect to put on the line for the mission, be it bones or chakra exhaustion or their own lives. It’s by no means a kind system, and nobody expects to like all of their commanders or be personally favored by the Tsuchikage, but it’s not about kind, it’s not about pretending to be a family, it’s about having the whole of yourself measured and weighed and knowing exactly what you’ve got. You can’t trust a kind shinobi to make the right call, say shinobi of Iwa, because they’ll get emotional and throw themselves into lost causes and make damning compromises for the sake of their kindness, but you can damn well trust a smart shinobi to make the right call, even if that call ends with your last stand. Whatever potential and worth you still had to give that’s taken by the enemy will be taken from them in turn with steel and chakra.
That’s the theory of it, anyway. In reality things aren’t perfect and people make mistakes and shinobi fail or die when all signs pointed to success or survival. There’s a great deal of calculus involved in the life of an Iwa shinobi, and sometimes the calculations are done wrong. Sometimes, in fact, the numbers are right and you get consigned to an early grave for your apparent lack of worth. But hey, your next of kin will get some compensation and someone will make a speech and pretend the next assassination mission is to avenge you. Lucky you.
THE GOVERNMENT OF IWAGAKURE: The boring part of governance as far as shinobi are concerned
IWA COUNCIL
- A relatively large group of advisors to the Tsuchikage from multiple branches of the Iwa forces and multiple clans and civilian interests
- Honestly like half of the petty political bullshit that happens in Iwa is because one Council member made a passing insult to another Council member
- They argue with the Tsuchikage if they disagree that much, but they don’t dare subvert whoever holds the hat. Mū taught them that lesson and Onoki has always heavily implied he’d be willing to go back over it if he needed to.
THE ARMED FORCES OF IWAGAKURE
The bulk of actual “governance” as far as shinobi are concerned.
REGULAR SHINOBI FORCES
- Earth Release is, to no surprise, by far the most common element in the ranks of Iwa shinobi, with Fire and Wind following distantly behind
- Lava Release is in turn the most common kekkei genkai, prominent with the Yamamoto but seen often enough amongst other clans and even clanless or civilian-born shinobi that it’s not considered exclusive to the clan
- Considered pound-for-pound the absolute greatest defensive force among the Hidden Villages; defensive missions have a high success rate that increases even further within the Land Of Stone itself
- They like to leave all manner of traps strewn across their territory and even in the city itself, specifically keyed to attack, ensnare, and even kill anyone actively using chakra; Iwa shinobi know what they are and if a rookie accidentally trips one and gets caught they also know what to do to survive and, maybe, get out on their own
- These traps and defenses get even more deadly and powerful the closer you get to sensitive areas, such as Anbu headquarters or Academy grounds
- Among the least numerous of shinobi forces across the Five Elemental Nations, due to the harsh geography that is ill-suited for widespread agriculture and not helped by their frequent clashes with other shinobi
- Make up for this in part with summons and nin-animals, but mostly just plan with this in mind in order to favor more uneven combats
- Favor guerrilla warfare and dirty tactics over battlefield engagement even more than other shinobi forces
EXPLOSION CORPS
- Initially not a branch of the Iwa military as much as a formation of Sei Clan shinobi proficient in the art, but with their extreme effectiveness and high demand the corps was eventually founded and non-clan members were taught the powerful Explosion Release
- The most unique of Iwa’s forces by far, with a jealously protected elemental release that offers exceptional battlefield control
- Earth is powerful but typically requires sustained chakra input in order to hold up against other techniques, and lightning is inclined to target lower numbers of enemies than other elements; Explosion Release combines these two in order to make something both instantaneous and capable of scaling to immense target areas
- The upper ranks are dominated by the Sei Clan, and it was only three years before the beginning of Generation Lost canon (five years before Naruto canon) that the first captain of the corps was a non-Sei shinobi by the name of Dan Shuryu, the infamous Bunker Buster of Iwa
- Unfortunately this means that the Corps is absolutely riddled with political horseshit, elitism and resentment and the like at a constant low simmer
ANBU
- Iwa’s Anbu forces are, largely, about what you’d expect from any Anbu organization; ruthless, loyal, intelligent, and either iron-willed or dead inside
- Notably, Onoki tends to disfavor them as bodyguards, considering visibility and recognizability to be more important parts of a protection detail than discretion
INTELLIGENCE DIVISION
- “Iwa Intelligence” is considered an oxymoron by most other Hidden Villages
- This is a deliberate ploy by Iwa Intelligence
- In keeping with the Will of Stone, the Division is heavily focused on gathering relevant data for all missions C Rank and above, with a token effort on analyzing D Ranks as a way to initiate rookies
- Relevant data includes extensive background checks on clients, geographical surveys of the areas or routes to be involved, threat assessments of any enemy or third-party forces that are potentially involved, local political tensions, and more besides
- By far the most thorough ongoing project of Iwa Intelligence is the Prisoners’ Dance (tr. "Shujin no Odori")
- Hidden Villages expect to be spied on by other Hidden Villages, and if they don’t catch any for a while then paranoia starts to mount about the true skill of the no-doubt-present shinobi
- Less experienced intelligence teams are sent to be intentionally caught and imprisoned by foreign villages, and subsequently presented as Iwa’s best efforts at spying
- These shinobi are then expected to analyze the full state of the foreign prison systems, looking for logistical weaknesses or failings, check prison populations, and measure political dissidence, eventually reporting back after the inevitable prisoner exchange in order to update this underground view of the enemy
- Meanwhile, the actual teams meant to infiltrate these locations are afforded greater safety thanks to the false sense of security and complete their intelligence gathering with little drama and much success
- Rivals the regular shinobi forces in terms of sheer manpower involved