Curate, connect, and discover
So, I have this idea for an epic Naruto sequel that I absolutely don't have the ability to actually write. But I was thinking of the politics of the Naruto world and what the actual fallout of the Fourth Shinobi War would be like.
So, the thing is, the politics are an absolute mess, apparently the countries are ruled by the Daimyo, but I don't understand how that could possibly work when all of the military power is centered on the Hidden Villages with the Kage as their overall dictators. The Shinobi Wars were conducted between the villages, there's no mention of the countries themselves actually being involved. Having your entire military act on a mercenary basis from a virtually independent city-state within your country just...cannot possibly work. The Daimyo has to have their own forces, but they're clearly not enough to be fully relied on considering how much power the Hidden Villages seem to have.
The way I see it, during the Warring Clans era, the Daimyo were properly in charge with their own Samurai soldiers and everything while the respective shinobi clans ruled over their own territory and acted as basically feudal lords with mercenary services being offered so long as they didn't go against the Daimyo. The time period was pretty awful for the clans, but the government was solid. Then the Hidden Villages started popping up, which complicated things.
We really didn't get all that much information on how the villages in the other countries ended up happening, but the story of Konoha is pretty clear. The formation of Konoha was probably permitted by the Daimyo because with the clans moving to the village, their respective territories were left basically to be returned to the ruling power, since they weren't there to govern it, the Daimyo could do what they wanted, and start handing it out to new nobles for connections and power. Plus, they no longer had to be careful in picking out which clans they went to for missions and keeping in mind their respective relations, not becoming overly reliant on one and snubbing another, they were all together.
The other villages were almost certainly formed as a reaction to Konoha, maybe for some the villages were the clans themselves coming together like in Fire while with others, maybe the Daimyo themselves formed them out of fear that the Fire Daimyo was consolidating military power with the clans forming a truly fearful army without them fighting each other anymore. Whatever you want to say happened, it led to the Great Hidden Villages forming and the rise to power of the Kage.
This is when things started backfiring on the Daimyo, because suddenly you had these giant, super powerful armies of all their shinobi clans giving their loyalty to a single leader...who isn't them. This led to a century of a very precarious balance of power between the nominal ruler in the Daimyo and the military power of the Kage. Things were largely kept in line due to the Shinobi Wars and the continued reliance on mercenary work on the part of the shinobi. I know that Zetsu is considered to blame for all the blood and violence, or whatever, but I would say that it worked in the Daimyo's favor to have the Shinobi fighting each other, it used to be the squabbling of the clans, but now it was the larger scale wars between the Hidden Villages. Which brings me to my story idea.
The Fourth Shinobi War led to a definite peace between the villages and the creation of a Shinobi Alliance as well as a movement towards ending the shinobi era as it was, especially the child solider aspect. There is no way the Daimyo would have been happy about that; things would have either had to fall apart or the governance of the countries would have to change.
So, the story idea is that the Daimyo start strengthening their samurai armies, who they've allowed to weaken through their reliance on the shinobi, with the intention of making the hidden villages fall in line beneath their command. Maybe the Daimyo of the Great Nations even joined together against their own shinobi. However, you want to play it out, there is a war brewing between the hidden villages and their Daimyo for the power of the country. Now, the Kage are not particularly interested in ruling their entire nations, well, most of them aren’t, Kakashi certainly isn’t, but they are not about the let their way of life be destroyed by selfish, paranoid Daimyo either.
Suna is especially in favor of ousting their Daimyo, relations in Wind have been particularly bad for a while now. The entire Suna invasion is a result of them losing missions from their Daimyo to outside sources, making them desperate. Kiri is probably in favor of making Terumi Mei in charge of everything too after all she did to end the era of the Bloody Mist, no thanks to their own Daimyo. In any case, the main story is a big epic about the shinobi trying to change things in a huge way and the Daimyo trying to stop it, leading to the confrontation that at the end of it means the Kage are going to have to take charge of their actual countries.
The story would follow the conflict, the end of the power of the Daimyo, the rise of the Kage to actual monarchs and the massive societal changes where they end the mercenary work of the shinobi and turn them into genuine military and the like. It would really be a huge undertaking of a story to bounce around the varied politics of the Five Great Nations and the fallout from the other, smaller countries.
There is something kind of hilarious about Kakashi, who doesn’t even want to be the Hokage, having to become the ruler of the entire Land of Fire. I don’t have the understanding of politics, Japanese history, or the world of Naruto to even begin to write something like this, I also don’t have the patience to write actual stories and make sure the characterization of everybody actually works. I just think it’d be a fascinating idea.
I have a few various headcanons that if I could write something like this I would want to include. For one, the Hatake clan isn't actually gone, they're a nomadic clan that acts in packs, every now and again a group will break off and settle down somewhere, which is what happened in Konoha, leading to Kakashi being the last of that group. The greater Hatake come around every few years to try and convince Kakashi to leave a village that has done very little for him, to no avail, then this conflict starts and a new pack breaking off happens, with them deciding to throw their weight behind Kakashi, acting as personal guards since they don't actually trust Konoha.
Of course, the ANBU and jounin corps are all completely loyal to Kakashi, but the Hatake don't know that. I think that would lead to some fun conflict since both parties want what's best for Kakashi, as a fellow Hatake or as their Hokage, but they have different ideas on what that means.
I have another idea where Kakashi and Shizune get married, solely in this context because I think she would make a fantastic Wife and Lady for the Land of Fire. I don't know, I just think she and Kakashi would work really well as a power couple when it comes to the role of Hokage and the politics involved. I normally think Kakashi works best with Yamato/Tenzo, but he would probably hate that kind of role. This kind of story would also really let Hinata shine, I think, with her training as the Hyuuga princess, she and Naruto make their own kind of power couple with international politics.
My thoughts are kind of scattered. Kishimoto created this really interesting world with all sorts of potential that really didn’t get fully explored. That’s why fanfic is so much fun.