Kumogakure is settled near what is rumoured one of the highest mountains of the Lightning country. Settled on various plateaus, that has been cleared and levelled, the city is considered to be an impregnable fortress city. Those who approach the city, no matter from which of the few directions, they are required to look up to the walls and defences of the city, often giving them the impression that the defences are much taller than they truly are. There are some rumours that the First Raikage made the Eight Tails construct the fortifications of Kumogakure and level several of the plateaus on which the city has been founded.
History
The Founding of Kumogakure
By Tsueno, The First Raikage
(Tsueno means : (恒雄, 恒夫): Japanese name meaning 1) "eternal hero" or 2) "eternal man.")
A strong clan that resided near what is now modern day Kumo was set on finding and capturing a tailed beast in order to use its power to protect them. The head of this clan Tsueno came the closest to capturing the beast, fighting it until he dropped due to exhaustion. The beast, recognising Tsueno skill decided to spare his life and fled.
After Tsueno came to, he realised that the beast had spared his life. Instead of causing him to give up the pursuit of the tailed beast, however, it renewed his desire to find the beast and use its power. Travelling to nearby clans, Tsueno convinced them of his search for the beast and told them the knowledge he had gained from fighting it. He gathered the most powerful shinobi from many different clans and they set out to hunt for the beast.
When they came across the tailed beast once again, the odds were in their favour. Still, many died trying to bring the beast under control. In the end, they managed to hold the beast back, just long enough for Tsueno to seal it within himself. With the power of the beast now under his control, Tsueno united the clans and brought them together to form Kumogakure, believing that they were safer together than apart. The other clans unanimously named and elected Tsueno to be their protector, both for his skills as a fighter and for his ability to bring people together. Tsueno accepted this position and thus became the First Raikage.
The beast that Tsueno sealed within himself was the Hachibi. While it resented being sealed away, it respected Tsueno skill enough to lend him its power. Once Tsueno passed away, and the Hachibi has sealed away in another vessel, its resentment grew, believing none to be fit of using his power like Tsueno was. This is a part of the reason that the beast began to hate people, believing their reasons for wanting his power to be selfish and arrogant.
The Passing of the First and rise of the Second Raikage
When the First Raikage began to show signs of his age and became ill, the people began to worry about who would take over his place. At the same time, Tsueno began searching for someone worthy of having the Hachibi sealed inside of them.
The other members of the village thought that a tournament would be the best way to decide who was the best fit to become the new Raikage, and so they picked their best fighters to compete. To Tsueno however, the position of Raikage was not one to be decided by pure fighting prowess alone. He argued with the council that they should find another way to choose a candidate, but the council's mind was set. To them, the Raikage needed to be the strongest member of the village. They also felt that the Raikage should always be the possessor of the Hachibi so that its power could always be used to protect the village.
Tsueno felt differently from the council. It was his belief that the Hachibi and the Raikage should be separate entities. He had only taken the position in the first place because the villagers looked up to him and he could keep the peace. So, while the council held the tournament to decide who should be the next Raikage, Tsueno set off in search of a person who was pure of heart, to be the new host of the Habichi.
Tsueno searched throughout the village to find one who was both pure-minded, and also skilled enough to control the beast's power. All the while the council was holding the tournament of champions. The tournament was long and bloody, with many skilled shinobi battling until they could fight no longer. While it was not supposed to be a fight to the death, there were still many casualties in the tournament.
Finally, a lone victor stood. He was young and talented, but he was also rash and easy to anger. The council put that down to his young age, however, and they decided that Koji ( (光司): Japanese name meaning "light/shining second (child)." Would be a worthy Raikage.
Tsueno had seen the young man's performance, and while he was impressed with his skill, he saw the anger in the young man and it troubled him.Tsueno again spoke to the council, asking that they not be so quick to choose his successor, and allow him to have a say. Instead of listening to the Raikage however, the council accused him of being too soft and said that his age was blinding him. They demanded that Tsueno make preparations to have the beast sealed within Koji upon his death.
Angered by their arrogance, and their utter refusal to listen, Tsueno instead made his own plans. He found someone within the village that he knew the council would never consider worthy of becoming Raikage, and he asked her to become the next host of the Hachibi. He had chosen a medical-nin, that held the name of Kiyoshi ( (淳): Japanese name meaning "pure."), someone who was selfless by nature, and someone who the council would deem inferior to other shinobi. While the council groomed Koji to become the Second Raikage, Tsueno began making preparations to transfer the Hachibi to the new host that he had chosen.
When the council came to ask for the Hachibi to be transferred into Koji They were horrified to discover that Tsueno had instead selected a different host. The First Raikage's last act had been one of defiance against the council. He had done what he had always done, what he thought was best for the village. The council was furious with his decision but they refused to take the new host of the Hachibi as the Second Raikage, something that the First Raikage had hoped would happen. The council announced Koji as the Second Raikage.
As the First Raikage had hoped for all along, the Hachibi was no longer attached to the role of the Raikage. Despite the First Raikage's wishes, the Hachibi greatly resented his new host. He viewed this host as being too weak for his powers and mocked her hesitancy to use his powers when she had the opportunity. Thus, the start of the beast slowly rise of aggression.
The rule of Koji, the Second Raikage
The reign of the Second Raikage was less than spectacular. Though Koji did, in fact, lose much of his foul temper as he grew older, his inexperience soon became quite clear. The Second Raikage relied heavily upon the advice of the council, much to their pleasure. He was convinced that the job of the Raikage was simply to protect the people in times of war. Kumogakure started to struggle under Koji reign.
Despite his best efforts, he simply wasn't cut out for the diplomatic side of being the Raikage. As the village began to slip into a downward spiral, the council focused more on fighting for their own power than its good being.
Soon people began to give voice to their concerns, and unrest grew amongst the villagers. There was even talk of a coup if the council couldn't be convinced to select a new Raikage. The only problem was that the council was happy with their position of power, and the Second Raikage merely acted as a figurehead while they pulled all of the strings. Koji began to notice the unrest amongst the villagers and he attempted to fix the situation by confronting the council. His actions were futile, however, as the council simply convinced him that the problems would soon go away and that it was only because of his youth that the villagers doubted his leadership.
Koji never got a chance to see whether or not the people would grow to accept him, as his reign was cut short due to his untimely demise. The cause of his early death is much disputed and many blame the Third Raikage who took the position very shortly afterwards.
The rule of Genmyou, the Third Raikage
he rise of Genmyou to Raikage was a rather grim one. It was around the last years of the Second Raikage and most of the notes, scrolls and books that tell about Genmyou's rise to power have seemed to vanish for some reason. The masked man, who had been part of Kumo's ANBU, was rumoured to have poisoned and drugged the Second Raikage. Some say the dubious man had started to corrupt the Second Raikage, in order to get the seat. It was the start of when many Kumogakure nin saw the rising process of Kumogakure to become stagnant.
For the next three years, Genmyou didn't improve the situation in Kumogakure. It seemed like that the village was already at it's maximum, of both military as economic strength. Many were however against that, wanting that Genmyou would do something to keep their progression they had to continue. Many were never heard from. Using a clan, the Antare clan, for his own use, Genmyou had given them a special ANBU position. Making sure that political opposition wouldn't rise, Genmyou did manage to keep an overall stable situation in Kumogakure.
It stayed like that until the year of 455. It was when the Great War came to dawn on the land. Because of the little improvement, Genmyou hadn't prepared Kumogakure. It resulted that the first operations and moves of Kumogakure were met with defeat. Even with commanders that had quite some talent, the Lightning Country wasn't a major player in the first six months of the conflict. Their main opponent was Iwagakure, but in the first month, they had some small skirmishes against Kirigakure and Konohagakure.
Though the other nations were fighting with all they had, the Lightning Country was keeping a rather defensive and self-focused stance. It would only happen when at the year of 456 when the duration of the war had begun to enter the second year, that the Lightning was starting to take more actions. With the Fire Country still managing to keep their defences up against the Earth, Water and Wind country, Genmyou proposed a co-operation against the Earth country. It was because of this co-operation that the Earth country's military started to lose more ground while both the Lightning and Fire country started to gain more. While the Fire country's military eventually started to focus more on the threat of the Wind and Water, the Lightning's primary focus remained on that of the Earth country.
With the end of the war in sight, the Lightning was the only village that hadn't lost a Kage. Though many said it was due Genmyou's leadership and skill, some others knew the truth. The man hadn't left the country during the entire war. The Antare clan had been assigned to guard the Raikage Office while Genmyou stayed safe out of harm's way. Some people were resenting the rule of the man while they knew how the first two Raikages had been. The resentment only grew when they saw that the other nations were growing again. Even the Earth country, that had been suffering some losses, was something that gave the cause that many began to lose faith in Genmyou. The only improvement they saw in the years that was called the Decade of Peace, was that Genmyou finally accepted an alliance with the Fire country. Those who had been disgruntled by Genmyou's rule were starting to resent the Third Raikage only more. Even while they had nothing against the Fire country, many started to complain in secret about Genmyou's slow actions. Even while Genmyou tried to use the Antare clan to trace and silence those people, it started to get slowly out of hand.
An important event of the faith in Genmyou being lost was when the host of the Hachibi had been kidnapped. Many claimed it was the Earth country, as an act of revenge and trying to weaken the Lightning country. Nobody is sure who or what had kidnapped the host, but only for the Hachibi to appear in the year of 472. The Eight-Tailed Beast started to cause a lot of damage as it attacks with a rage. Even while Genmyou was there to aid the sealing of the beast in a sealing jar, the faith in the Third Raikage had now truly hit the bottom. Some high ranked people left the village, like Chase Irozaki. If it wasn't for the fact that the Wind country declare war on them and send a mercenary force to stall the Lightning country's military, the situation would have only gotten much worse. Much like how it went with the Great War, Genmyou simply sends forth a host, under the command of Jinyaru Sanosuke. Though the Lightning country had received no actual damage, many started to openly question the Third Raikage, seeing that they had little belief in the abilities of the Raikage. But as Genmyou wanted to do something about it, he had a meeting with the Hokage at the Palace of Peace.
In the Palace of Peace event, Genmyou found his death. By a mysterious group, he fought until his death but was relatively easily beaten by the cunning assistant of the Third Hokage, who had betrayed her superior and then took the mantle of Genmyou. It was the start of Kumogakure's decline. Underneath the leadership of Naomi Hanamoto, the Cloud was losing some of it's best jounin. It would last until that Jinyaru Sanosuke had risen up against Naomi, finding somehow out that she wasn't the real Genmyou.
The rule of Jinyaru, the Fourth Raikage
After a long and fierce battle, Jinyaru had defeated Naomi the imposter. With that, he took over the title of Raikage. He was backed up by many, due his achievements and record during the First Shinobi World War as well the short war against Sunagakure. Within the first few months, Kumogakure's might started to grow again.
Its economic situation started to prosper and people started to gain faith in the Yondaime Raikage. However, Jinyaru didn't extend the alliance with Konohagakure, that was under the leadership now
of Koi with Zakito gone from the village. However, it seemed there was something with the rank of Raikage. Slowly, Jinyaru stopped to improve the situation of Kumogakure. Though his improvements managed to keep the village in line of that with the other Great Five, Kumogakure started to stop growing again.
With the rise of Shoji, it became clear that though Jinyaru had done some things, that he wasn't a great improvement from Genmyou either. With the oppression of Shoji's forces, it painfully became clear that they would soon stagnant once more, while others progressed.
Jinyaru didn't do much to liberate his people, unlike the leader of the secret Rebellion, Asami Sanosuke. Jinyaru's niece. With the plans and actions, Asami managed to liberate Kumogakure and prepare a host to march to fight against the last of Shoji's forces in the Land of Fire, together with other forces mustering towards the site of the Occupation's last battle. But while they had managed to fight off that threat, Jinyaru had been poisoned by some Metsuke (agents of Shoji, that are ex-shinobi.) Though they had managed to save Jinyaru's life, the man was now in a coma.
The Fifth Raikage, The Storm Blade
WIP
Surrounding Land
Settled near mountains, it will not surprise anyone that the surrounding land near Kumogakure is mountainous. To the north of the city steep cliffs and small passages lead to plateaus, where various hamlets are founded. Because of the high altitude and average fertility of the soil, there isn't much agriculture happening in the surrounding land. Most forms of agriculture are either with cattle or the few plants and resources that can withstand the harsher conditions found north outside the city.
To the east and west, are various high cliffs and areas that aren't accessible to anybody on foot. Though some use the cliffs to train, it is widely advised to not risk it. Certainly, after a heavy rain pour, the chances of falling are higher. And from the various incidents that have occurred, it is safe to say that nobody can survive a fall from several hundred meters.
The south of Kumogakure is more hospital. It is the most used way to get to the city as the paths to the higher levels and eventually to the city are steep, the area is less cold and being a valley in which many farms and small hamlets are founded. In this valley, various fortified watch posts have been constructed to safeguard those who almost literally live in the shadow of the city in the mountains.
Southern Part
The southern part of Kumogakure is the most visited place of the city. It will be of no surprise that most shops and establishments such as inns and taverns can be found there. Not many traders or bypassers seeking the comfort of an inn will likely explore further but if they happen to do so they will find out that many districts in the southern part of Kumogakure are quite pleasant to the eye. Many denizens of this part of the city even pride themselves on the fact that as there is even a festival each year in each block of the districts to see who has the most appealing home.
Another interesting detail for travellers and inhabitants might be that in the southern part there are two complexes that are regarded as a source of pride for the city's inhabitants. The first is the old theatre school. Here many art forms are taught and represented. Even a small department is focused on educating geishas if one has the funds to afford the education that is offered.
Another interesting complex is what people rumoured to be the first building of Kumogakure. It is now a mere museum to the First Raikage, who to the urban legend build it himself before the ambition of founding Kumogakure. These days many Academy students are tasked with keeping it clean and together with some of the city guard and chuunin (who are on standby) need to guard the museum.
Western Part
The western part of Kumogakure is one that is lacking in comparison with the others in terms of wealth. While many of the districts aren't slums or in any extravagant way poor, there are some blocks that good folk tend to stay away from. Crime rates are somewhat higher and even with the occasional city watch patrolling around, there isn't much that has changed.
An interesting landmark in the western part is the Kumo's Orphanage. Funded by the state, the orphanage takes care of children and try to make it happen that they have a place to sleep and eat. Children that grow to the age of twelve usually are being helped to find some work - usually mundane work that just should earn them a bit of money, to stay off the streets and criminal paths. Unknown to many, the orphanage is actually one of the recruitment grounds for Asami's little birds (spies).
Another interesting complex in the western part is the Guard Corps HQ. From the outside, it looks like an old, weak building, but from the inside, it looks like a slightly less old building. Around the lot it's on, there's a small perimeter built up by a two-meter wall that only opens up at the entrance. But many that are aware of the Guard Corps aren't fooled by the building's appearance, knowing fully that the Guard Corps is one of the most disciplined organisations present in the city. Though there have been some renovations ongoing, since the appointment of Hikyo as Guard Commander.
Eastern Part
The eastern part of the city is where most of the administrative complexes are located. The Raikage Office is one of them but there is also the Shinobi Academy and the headquarters of the Intelligence Division. It is also home to the headquarters of the Storm Guards. Being located just next to the Raikage Office building, the Storm Guards complex is where many of the newest military officers for both the Shinobi corps as regular soldiers enjoy their education. Having been founded by the Fifth Raikage, the new organisation is one that is already having a large allure on many young people with a military ambition.
A more secluded and obscure place within the western part of the city is the location of the Cloud Force. A small complex which seems to harbour nothing but administrative personnel, it is headquarters of the esteemed and almost mythical Cloud Force. Several barriers and seals in place to prevent easy access near the complex. It looks from a distance sturdy and has three tall towers. There are several small towers with flags on the right and left the side of the building. It has also two specialised fields for the airships to land and rises into the air.
Northern Part
The northern part of Kumogakure is often compared to be the more calm variant of the southern part. Various establishments like inns and taverns are found there. But with many taking the southern approach and route to Kumogakure, the northern approach is less visited. Being thus less profitable for commerce aimed at outsiders. Many other shops and homes of the city's denizens are here, build on various plateaus.