Chapter Text
This story is set in the world of Escape & Evade, a world in which the village was formed quite differently to canon.
There are reasons for the differences from canon in this story, and many of them are contained in The World Building of Courting Culture Confusion, but the main difference is that Izuna lived. The only other major change is that Naruto happens in Japan, solely because I didn't know that wasn't canon when I wrote the first story. Everything else is part of the butterfly effect, and the world building necessary to make those two things happen.
However, just in case you'd like to know what's happened in the series up to this point, the basics are as follows:
Thanks to the way Konoha was founded, Zetsu realised that it did not have much of an opportunity to manipulate Madara. As such, it tried to kill Tobirama and convince Madara to activate the Rinnegan by manipulating various people in the Elemental Countries. Its plots were exposed, the First Shinobi World War was the armies of the Elemental Countries versus Zetsu, and Zetsu was killed.
Because of that war, the Shodai and Nidaime were occupied with building up their own villages rather than waging war on each other, and several of the other Kage were intimidated by the power that Konoha could bring to bear.
Over the course of the next two decades, the west increased pressure on Japan to abandon its policy of isolation. Seeing the gunboat diplomacy employed by the British against China, Japan grew increasingly divided on the topic. Combined with the long term economic problems and several natural disasters, the bakufu of the daimyo began to lose control of the Elemental Countries.
On July 8, 1853, US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry's four-ship squadron appeared in Edo Bay. He delivered letters from US President Fillmore and sailed away but warned that he would be back. He returned on February 11, 1854 and the Convention of Kanagawa was signed between himself and the Daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni.
Knowing that the pressure was not going to let up, Madara handed the hat to Kagami who became Sandaime Hokage.
Working together with the other Sandaime Kage, Kagami and his lover Koshamain, the Sandaime Mizukage, managed to hold the villages in a state of peace for nearly two decades while simultaneously fending off the efforts of the Western powers to invade their territories. Part of that was organising the equivalent of the Meiji Restoration - the Kōmei Restoration. It was the Kōmei Restoration because Hashirama saved Emperor Kōmei from dying of smallpox and introduced a widespread vaccination campaign. (The vaccine was available in Japan at that time in history, it was simply isolated to Hokkaido. I made it widespread through Hashirama's efforts.)
In 1871, Johan Hampus Furuhjelm, chief of the Russian seaports in the Pacific, sent seven ships to claim Kunashir Island. He thought it was an isolated island that was home to barbaric fishermen and hoped to overawe them into letting him claim a port for Russia that is open all year round, unlike Vladivostok which is iced over every winter.
What he didn't know was that Kunashir Island is the location of Kirigakure, and that the shinobi of Kiri do not take incursions into their territory well. With the assistance of shinobi from Uzushio and three of the Five Great Shinobi Nations (Suna was too far away to send anyone), Kiri fought off the Russians at great cost.
However, the losses caused great controversy and led to the overthrow of Koshamain, leading to a civil war in Kiri as all the clan heads fought for the title. It was a time of great darkness for Kiri and, in the end, the clan head of the Karatachi, Yagura's father, won it after almost six years of bitter fighting.
His first move was to declare war on Uzushio.
Just as in canon, Uzushio was attacked. However, unlike in canon, Kiri was weak and without allies. They were soundly defeated and Yagura's father was killed. Yagura ascended to take his father's place, and he would rule over Kirigakure with an iron fist for twenty five years.
He made Kirigakure into a police state, and was the terror of every person in it.
Seeing what was happening in Mizu no Kuni, the other Kage banded together to work against him in whatever ways they could while also keeping their people out of it as much as possible.
But the Kage aren't only leaders and politicians, people entrusted with power.
They're men and they have families.
Each and every one of them is a father.
Warnings:
There will be depictions of canon typical violence, though it won’t be graphically described.
There will also be frank discussions of politics, including some of the more fraught decisions made by all parties.
Please, read with care for yourself and skip the story if any of this is not for you.