Waiting for the rest of her loyal subjects to arrive, Shoko sat peacefully at the table, her hands interlocked and her eyes closed. There was something unsettling her, and she wasn't the sort to be unsettled without good reason. Forming hand signs, she created multiple shadow clones of herself, and sent them out to retrieve the rest of her ninja, dragging them back if need be.

[center]___[/center]

With everyone in attendance, Shoko stood from her seat to address them all. "With the threat of mercenary bands now gone, I believe it is time to enact some changes in the world. Over the course of my conquest I have tied down the many great villages, my intent to let them learn what life without freedom is. It's hard, of course, after all, freedom is something people are born believing they are entitled to. They are wrong, freedom must be earned, lest it be taken for granted and abused. Ever since I have been in power the global economy has been balanced, and crime has been nearly stamped out. Yet, There are those who are not content with the way things are, as expected." Shoko knew those in her company knew who she was referring to, the Rebels were the last hurdle in her vision of a truly peaceful world, one where war and famine were things of the past. It pained her to fight war with war, and so she tried her best to avoid conflict whenever possible, and never waged war in populated areas. But war was war, no matter how she tried to lessen it's effects, and as such the Rebels were a group keen on seeing her and the Empire burn to the ground.

Shoko reached into her left sleeve, and pulled out a scroll with her white and red emblem emblazoned upon it. "This is a peace treaty, a week ago I sent an envoy to each of the great villages, and today is the day that the treaty will be shown to them." She sat the scroll down on the table, allowing the ninja gathered to read it's contents if they so wished. "I will be personally visiting each of the villages to discuss the conditions of the treaty, if things do not go as planned I may need to alter the arrangements. You all will be my escort." She had not spoken much in this meeting, but her point was clear. She did not want to waste any time in fulfilling her last objective. "Rest today, for tomorrow we will travel to Suna. Dismissed." Shoko said.

Before anyone had the chance to leave, the large wooden doors to the room swung open violently. Standing at the door's entrance was a bloodied and bruised Nikuya. Her signature long hair had been torched by the Hokage's fire jutsu, leaving her with a rather rough tomboyish haircut. Her clothes almost looked like charcoal ready to be thrown into a furnace. "Oh... The summoning jutsu worked..." Nikuya spoke between ragged breaths, her eyes glazed over as if she wasn't fully conscious. Shoko ran to the battered ninja, and caught her as she fell forwards. "Empress.... You shouldn't... I'm getting my blood all over you..." Nikuya grinned, actually happy to see a friendly face. Shoko gently laid her down upon the ground, her eyes slumped in worry. "I don't look that bad do I? You haven't looked at me like that since the first time we met."

"You almost look like a corpse Nikuya, you have a shuriken stuck in your shoulder for heaven's sake. Who did this to you?" Shoko asked. Nikuya's eyes averted from the Empress, she hated to be the one saying this.

"Kenji fucking Uchiha, the Hokage. The Rebels decided to stage a revolt, one that's gonna be successful given their numbers... I'm sorry, at such a crucial time I've failed you, why did it have to be... Today." Nikuya's demon like eyes were glassy, She had one job, one very important job, and she failed it, in turn failing the one woman she respected. Shoko placed a hand on her forehead, her visage remaining the same. 

"Do not worry, Nikuya, We have not failed. This is a set back, but it does not change things." Nikuya barely heard Shoko's words, but they were enough to let her slip out of consciousness with a content smile.

Medic-nin carried Nikuya to the infirmary. Shoko stood silent for a moment, her back to the ninja behind her. "...No rest. We leave for Suna in two hours."

[center]~~~[/center]

Natsumi's eye's narrowed as Kenta spoke to her. She did not retort. Her throat was anxious and painful, as if she were keeping down a bad meal of razors. Hearing him complement her of all things only reminded her that he was still the kind man that looked out for her as a child. She didn't want to do this, she never wanted to do this. Her hands tightened around the grips of her fans until her knuckles turned white, why didn't he just give up?

Her eyes shifted as she noticed movement behind Kenta, a placid presence on a battlefield like this could only be one person, Kaede. For a moment her body tensed as she saw the line of Empire soldiers in her way, at a moments notice a battle could break out, however, Kenta simply let Kaede through. The enemy cautiously backed away from her, allowing her to pass and stand near her and Takeo. Kaede confronted Kenta, asking him why he had decided to betray his village. Natsumi lowered her head, it didn't matter what Kenta had to say, she had heard every excuse already anyway. There was no justification for the laws that had been forced upon them, none at all. 

"Huh?" The mention of a scroll propped her head upwards, and her attention was turned towards her grandfather. Takeo produced the scroll in question, it bared the mark of the Empress. He explained it's contents, they were the conditions for a peace treaty. the tension in her body dispersed, as she ran through her mind just what this meant. The War would end, and no one would be oppressed any longer. If they accepted the treaty then no one else would need to die, they could live in peace and she wouldn't have to do something as painful as brandishing her weapons at a friend. But it seemed her thoughts were not shared with Takeo and Kaede. Why? What did they want? Takeo wanted the Empress to surrender, which would no doubt result in her death. People wanted revenge, of course. Not only that, but they wanted their power back, the right to decide things for themselves. Justification for their lives, feelings of pride and overcoming adversity, they wanted that back, Natsumi understood that. 

Kenta was not making his case to anyone here, it simply was not going to happen. 

[b]“This isn’t how I wanted things to be.”[/b]

Natsumi noticed a change in Kenta, as if he had decided something grave. Takeo left her and Kaede with cryptic words. "W-what we must do? Wait where are you going!?" Natsumi cried out as her grandfather left. She was confused, she didn't know why Takeo had left, and she didn't know what Kenta was planning on doing. Kaede tried to plead with him to stop one final time, but Kenta's mind was made up. She saw him take a green pill out, and her heart skipped a beat. He planned to die here. "Kenta, please no!" Natsumi screamed at the top of her lungs, but her words could not stop him. A strong aura of chakra burst forth from his body, and he wasted no time in attacking Kaede.

For a split moment Natsumi was stunned, she couldn't believe this was happening, it was as if she were in a nightmare. Her body's instincts kicked in, and she was forced to take part in this battle. Two others had acted before her, first, a boy threw two shuriken at Kenta, she registered that they were not much of a threat. However, the boy then launched explosive kunai at Kenta. Her eye's gauged their path through the air, and she saw that some would miss, and two would hit Kenta. At the same time, a female ninja had rocketed towards Kaede, intending to knock her out of the way of Kenta's attack. All the while, Natsumi's hands had formed the signs needed to preform a jutsu. Her cheeks puffed up, and she blew out a stream of wind from her mouth. The wind was strong enough to pick the female ninja off her feet and out of harms way, as well as knock the explosive tags out of the way. Natsumi gritted her teeth in anger. "Who said you could do that!?" She screamed in frustration. "Those explosives could have hit Kaede, four hit trees, do you even know what you're doing!?" It wasn't like her to lash out at people, but her emotions were getting the better of her in this situation. "Kenta!" She yelled, her voice a cocktail of anger and tears. "I'm not going to let you die, don't just think you can do whatever you want!" Her hands moved once more, cupping her mouth with a single hand she blew a large fireball directly towards him.