[Kouga Kanoh]

Blotches of unsteady ink desecrated page after page as Kouga revised each line, always unsure of the impact of her wording or the implication of each punctuation mark. What she wrote here was of the utmost importance; she had to get it right. There wasn't a lot to lose when addressing a letter to an animus nation but she was in no position to prod the side of the bull across the border.

Her handwriting was nothing special, though clearly drawn out with care. She'd taken lessons on calligraphy but she'd never felt correspondence between shinobi demanded that air of nobility that so ill-suited their line of work; to her it was almost insulting to receive something that would otherwise be in the mailbox of some foreign dignitary. Kouga was anything but graceful. She was a soldier. And, in some ways, her unceremonious nature had benefitted her. In other ways... it could certianly offend.

After two or three painful hours, deliberating over what exactly to say, Kouga sealed the small hand-written scroll with a piece of silk that harbored her country's name. It was a cool green and was loose enough to allow it to be easily inspected without sacrificing any discretion that a postman might offer their Lady.

[googlefont=Nothing You Could Do]

Lady Tsuchikage,

For as long as most have lived, our nations have been enemies. The sins of our ancestors weigh on us today and that hatred we carry refuses to disappear.

The Land of Fields is tired of that hate; both our lands have long suffered because of it. But whatever bitterness we cling to is for the sake of bitterness itself. The world is changing around us. While tensions grow across the continent, there is a silenced scream beneath us in the hundreds of thousands; they're begging for peace.

I don't want our people to fight any longer. I don't want my people to die for a feud our ancestors started. I yearn for a future in which the people of our nations can meet and converse as friends and comrades. I yearn for that word 'peace' that each widowed wife and dying soldier carries on bloodstained lips.

I urge you to consider it as well.

Sincerely,
Kouga Kanoh

[Kouga Kanoh]

After several weeks without response or even confirmation the letter was received, Kanoh resigned herself to the fact that it would seem Iwagakure was unwilling to discuss a future together. She had been hopeful, but that didn't mean she was caught off guard by the lack of response. In all honesty, the Tsuchikage ignoring the letter altogether was probably the most likely thing to happen.

Of course, she didn't let that be the last purpose this letter could serve. Along its journey, the letter addressed to the ruler of the Land of Earth had been only briefly misplaced. A few rough copies were made and the information within was spread amongst those civilians and shinobi who lived along the border of Nohara no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni. Word of Kusagakure's attempt to make peace with the Land of Earth made its way into many neighboring nations and likely those nation's hidden villages as well.

They were just rumors of course, but there was word of proof in the form of those rough copies as well. Before the month was finished, it's likely all who had their ear to the ground for political developments would have heard of Kusagakure's active attempts to pursue peace and Iwagakure's active avoidance of it in turn.

What a shame.