A/N: Moar mystary. Got bored. I hate this time of year for obvious reasons, but brooding does not lend itself well to writing the main story. So... yeah.

The Ancient World and Exploration Difficulties

All of us at the Conference are grateful for the words of appreciation from the Five Kage, and we are cheered to see the launch of the Terumi has proceeded with no major or unexpected difficulties.

As the Daimyo and the Gokage require a more detailed report of the costs behind the Terumi and this mission, we have prepared the following analysis.

Our understanding of the world of the Dawn Nations and the time before the Silence is, at best, mostly conjectural at this point. Given the inability of our manned expeditions to get very far south without encountering utterly lethal temperatures and weather, until recently such explorations could only be conducted via 'forced-link' remote viewing genjutsu from a linked summon with flying capabilities.

The great eagles were able to,using this method, provide us with detailed tide charts, weather patterns, and the outline of the edges of the nearest coastline, but little else – so far from any natural chakra, they quickly tired and were forced to return to the summon plane.

The creation of the seal-powered 'war golems' based on certain Uzani, Sabatu, Uzumaki and other sealing and puppet techniques has been a godsend in terms of exploration of the wider world, however, and more and more information and artifacts are being recovered every day. The ability of the golems to withstand both temperature extremes and inclement weather has finally allowed us to step beyond the limits of our own homelands.

These explorations have been limited, however, to the northern portions of the nearest continent. We are beginning to understand the dangers of the old world, especially from 'radiation' and how it interacts with chakra. For as yet unknown reasons, elemental chakra is not strongly affected by radiation, but natural chakra is. Currently, the sages hold the theory that natural chakra depends on (or is slowly generated by) plant life and other living beings.

Radiation appears to disrupt both the reproduction and health of living creatures as well as natural chakra formation. While almost nothing can make direct use of natural chakra in terms of jutsu or application except sages, all living things rely on natural chakra for survival. The chakra coils in our bodies very slowly use tiny amounts of natural chakra, which with our internal yin and yang energies turns it into the basic chakra we can all use. With no natural chakra sources, non-ninja humans and most animals will die in days, while even strong ninja would sicken in weeks.

That is aside from the fact that radiation damages the body, causing sickness, mutation, burns, and eventually death. We're not sure why this happens. Our best theories is that radiation is some kind of energy that damages cells – research by both Sakura of Konoha and Orochimaru suggest it damages living tissue on a sub-cellular level, making healing jutsu useless.

The actual effects are gruesome enough to not warrant further detailing here. Suffice it to say that no ninja, regardless of preparation, can be expected to reliably survive for more than a few days in such environments.

Exploration thus is limited mostly to the golem designs. Created by using puppet techniques combined with the metal-smithing ability of certain Konoha and Kiri shinobi, the golems are powered by a small scale raiton generator, and send data back using the chakra-rod transmission pattern, enhanced by fuinjutsu. This makes them slow to react but capable of functioning for long periods of time in the waste.

We now have enough information, based on the first three golem expeditions, to allow for the planning and development of recolonization of parts of the old world. While assembling an interface to even view this data has been tiresome (and expensive), it is a promising start to the endeavor, enough so that we feel a larger group could establish a forward base. It is in the pursuit of this endeavor that the Hokage himself, accompanied by the Snake Sage and the criminal Orochimaru, who is also a Snake Sage, have departed to the northernmost continent.

The plan is for them to establish an area clean of contamination, first by the use of high level earth and water jutsu to clear out a perimeter, then to use massive amounts of sealed earth, water, and other materials stored on the vessel along with fuinjutsu and barrier jutsu to ensure the area is not contaminated again. Specially designed plants grown with the mokuton ability of the Hokage will be planted and hopefully allow for the establishment of a pool of natural chakra, which would allow us to move in and build up a base.

Air and wind chakra will be used in conjunction with fuinjutsu to provide clean air and regulate the temperatures, while a proper transmission dish will rely on a raiton generator on site and allow for radio communication in theory.

A Rough Timeline and the need for this study

Given that we do not clearly understand what set off the war that lead to the fall of the Dawn Nations, there has been a great deal of concern that we are flying blind in attempting to place a manned operation in those lands. This decision was made at the highest levels of governance, and it is not the position of this committee to second-guess our leaders. Rather, we would prefer to review our own findings, and let the data speak for itself.

We know very little about the organization of the Dawn Nations, but we have some idea of the rough outlines of where they sat. The extreme north, where the expedition will establish itself, was at the time of the war a near-arctic wasteland, so it is extremely unlikely that the expedition will encounter large-scale ruins or anything dangerous. And while there will be some exploration done from the outpost established by the expedition, its primary goal is to allow for us to construct a settlement there and allow for wider and longer ranged golem exploration and possible colonization, not blindly stumbling about in the ruins of the old world.

Before we do any wide scale exploration, however, all parties are agreed that we need more information on the war. The terms 'Silence', 'the Son', 'holy fathers', 'the Unclean', and other poorly explained terms keep popping up, and trying to put together a good idea of what happened would be our very highest priority. Based on our explorations, and from existing documents, we have at least some idea of how things progressed.

Some of this material is new – and may seem at first glance outlandish. Since our initial report we have not only had the chance to examine and further review existing documents, but documents and evidence recovered from the golem expeditions. Please keep in mind that while much of this is certainly conjectural... most of it seems solid and is referenced in multiple places both here and on the northern continent.

As amazing as it may sound, it does not appear that humanity actually arose on this world. We have never found many fossils in our own lands, which makes sense given that humans were recent transplants, but the documents from the Hole and in other locales makes it clear that humans were not native to this world. While the terms used in the most ancient historical files simply have no translations in our language, we can at least understand that humanity arrived from 'somewhere else' on huge ships that could move between the stars themselves.

The scale of such technology is staggering, but it immediately raises additional questions. Was humanity expanding … or fleeing from some threat? The documents show the humans landing here split into two groups, one settling the planet itself, the others on the moon, but aside from vague allusions to 'freaks' and 'monsters' there is no given reason why.

More disturbingly, the documents we have would seem to indicate the colonization did not go well, and that much technology was already lost by the time they arrived. That does not sound like a well organized colonization, more like running for your life.

We have no context or understanding of what could have threatened such, although some passages referring to 'Old Earth' imply that some portion of humanity might have stayed and fought while ships like the ones that brought our ancestors here fled. We may never know, and given the span of years involved it is safe to say that whatever threat drove us here is now long dead.

We hope.

In terms of the humans who came here, our understanding is also limited.

At first, the colonists were united, and there are indications they were in contact with their parent civilization. Only a handful of excerpts of this time period have been found, although we certainly would expect to find more in the submerged ruins of the old world.

The one excerpt we have from the northern continent – recovered by golems – was apparently brought along by one of the people who fled the war, transcribed onto heavy sheets of metal and sealed. The majority of these metallic sheets are still being translated, but this snippet is part of the reason why the expedition was launched in the first place:

"It has been six (moon-cycles?) since the United Nations combat fleet jumped out of the system to initiate Front Wave. We're still in the process of getting everything settled down, and the moon freaks are building the (energy source) we'd eventually need. I've made the argument several times that no matter how human they may look, those things are dangerous – but no one listens. Then again, given what went down on Old Earth there at the end, maybe my colleagues are right. Certainly the (untranslatable) wasn't there fault.

That being said, the colony at Luna (?) was always a mess. They experimented recklessly with (untranslatable) to the point where they are only distantly related to us, and their culture and outlook certainly hasn't endeared them to the general population. The UN giving them seats at the table in return for their research into dimensional fatigue lead to the (untranslatable) – which is the only reason we are still alive.

But that doesn't mean we have to look the other way if they get up to something stupid.

In any event, we're only a contingency backup. The main force should still be holding out near (untranslatable), and we have colony ships heading towards (untranslatable), (north star?), and (untranslatable). I don't like the fact that the UN isn't telling us more about what is going on, but there's nothing I can do about that. If Front Wave fails, it's up to us to carry on humanity since we scrapped all the (sunken-starrock?) related technology that would lead the (untranslatable) to us.

I worry that they only stuck us out here to shut up the Luna Foundation. Even so, if the (dark ones?) come for us, the UN won't be around to help out.

One must prepare for war in time of peace, so we've taken the precaution of stashing the (stepping walking?) drive(?) and the navigation AI away. Dug a bunker up north in the arctic region, it has no seismic activity and isn't really habitable. If push comes to shove and things get stupid, we at least can rebuild one colony ship and get the hell out of the line of fire."

If our surmise is correct, then the components of an engine system that allows for travel between the stars is hidden somewhere in the northernmost continent, and the expedition's highest priority is finding it – and the reason why such staggering expenses are, in fact, quite affordable given the rewards.

As far as the history goes, the rest is more difficult to be sure of. The colonists did not stay united for long – contact with the original civilization that they came from was lost roughly a year after they arrived. This resulted in a great deal of tension, as it appears the societies who landed here were not all of the same accord. War did not break out, but there was a great deal of societal unrest and eventually populations moved to other continents and formed their own groups.

It was the loss of this communication that spurred additional sciences and some form of ill-fated mission to find out what had transpired. The various nations managed to cooperate long enough to create some form of exploration ship, and sent it out to attempt to reestablish communications or determine what was going on. There was not a great amount of detail in the records we have found so far on to what exactly happened, but eventually the ship returned.

The documents talking about what the mission found were extremely incomplete and very difficult to translate even if undamaged. It sounds as if something took over the ship of the explorers and landed on the world, and that whatever had taken over the ship was the source of something called "The One Who Is" or "The Son".

The "Son" was, from what little we understand, some form of life that was clearly not human. It had abilities that sound very much like chakra manipulation, but also far more advanced technology. It claimed it had come from a distant place and that its goal was to uplift humanity. Many disjointed references seemed skeptical of this idea.

There are broken references to the force or disaster that had lead to the colonists coming here from wherever humanity arose in the first place and a single passage in one of the more damaged tablets that is somewhat ominous:

"The idiots angry at the concept of working with – or surrendering – to the Son don't seem to get we have no choice. Sure, what he's offering is probably (probable vulgarity), but we haven't seen the UN in years. The (array of eating surfaces? Bowls?) picked up some ugly readings towards (North star?) and then nothing.

No emissions. No comms. Nothing. We either skedaddle now or shack up with the Son and hope we can withstand the tide. And let's be honest – we haven't had comms from the Front Wave colonization teams either. If this Son can stop the (untranslatable), isn't that better than death?"

At first, the "Son" attempted peaceful communication and negotiation. After this was relatively unsuccessful, he launched an assault on a landmass and established "a city that touched the sky".

Civilization split down the middle, as this "Son" attempted to conquer the world. Many of the colonists feared whatever they had fled from more than the Son, but there was a great deal of unclear distrust of the Son and a fear that what he offered had too high a price to pay.

The fighting seems to have been pretty ugly. The Son had abilities that no other group could match and several nation-states allied and submitted to him, leaving the others separated and vulnerable. Once his conquest sped up, it became clear to the remaining nations that they couldn't stop him.

It didn't help that – again, this is conjectural – there were... issues happening at the same time of the conquests. There are very badly garbled and confusing references to 'anomalies' and 'mirror-gates', to giant things that assaulted the other nations, and most worryingly, mentions of something called 'dimensional fatigue'.

This is worrisome because the same phrase pops up much later in documents about the Spear of Heaven and even in some form in the writings of the Sage of Six Paths.

Conjecture at this point is not helpful – the bottom line was that half the world was aligned with the Son, and that whatever the Son was attempting to do was seen as dangerous, and quite possibly world-ending.

The danger was such that the other nations literally destroyed the planet rather than allow the Son and his works to continue. The war destroyed the land, as described earlier, and during the crescendo of the fighting the being known as the Son unleashed something referred to as the Unclean.

Whatever these Unclean were, they destroyed much of the lands of the Son, and were equally destructive in the allied nations. When the last assault destroyed something called the Sky Needle, the Son 'fell silent'. Shortly thereafter, the war intensified and destroyed everything save for the moon colony and the broken refugees that came to the Elemental Nations to found it.

We do not know what happened to the moon colony. The term 'Silence' appears very often in the fragmentary records of those fleeing the southern lands, but the term is poorly explained. We conjecture that the silence of the Son may have also had some kind of follow-on effect, but the only records we have are simply too unclear.

We have many questions, but the Silence raises the most. The fact that the ancients seemed to think the 'Unclean' may not have been destroyed by the war or even by being flooded under miles of seawater is frightening. More than that, the ancients were not sure the Son was actually destroyed, or fled, or simply moved out of the way. If it is still out there, then we must make sure nothing we do disturbs it... or brings us to its attention.

Some may question why, if there are so many dire mysteries and troubling questions, are we going to poke it with a stick?

The answer is simple. As mentioned before, weather and temperature patterns in the north are shifting, and have affected weather and crops across the Elemental Nations. If we are forced to flee our homeland to this northernmost continent, we must prepare it for colonization – and we do not want to stumble into whatever in the name of Kami destroyed the Dawn Nations, or anything left over from such an event.

The exploration will not only provide a foothold that will allow colonization teams to begin the process of resettling this land, but give us a warning of any dangers and provide us clear answers to some of the above questions. At the very least, the preparation for this voyage has already paid vast dividends in jutsu technologies, metallurgy, and medical jutsu applications. We predict more of the same as we proceed, and if all goes well we may even be able to discover some of the lost secrets of our distant ancestors.

The Geography of the World

As we understand it, there were three major continents in the world during the time of the ancients, as well as our own lands and a small landmass at the southern pole, buried under miles of ice. The war itself apparently changed the very landscape of entire continents, but we have some idea of what it was like.

The largest of the continents was roughly translated as 'cradle of beauty and terror', and was the oldest and most heavily settled. It was most certainly the most developed area, and humanity spread outwards as we grew in technology and sophistication. This continent was also where the Son initially landed and planted his Sky Needle. We will reference this continent as the Cradle.

The second largest continent was crescent shaped, and to the east of the Cradle Its name roughly translated to 'the willing shield of prudence', and we will call it the Shield. The Shield was inhabited (we think) by mostly military types, with much of the landmass given over to weapons we can barely describe – 'light-swords', 'splitcore repeaters', and 'rays of that which is opposite to all things'. For whatever reason, Shield was set up with many secure shelters and may have been designed as a fallback point if the world was invaded by whatever chased them.

The smallest continent – and the northernmost one, that we will be landing on, was called basically 'the expanse of ice and iron'. The reason is understandable – golem expeditions have already found the remains of giant strip-mining efforts miles wide, beyond the power of any jutsu we have heard of, lined with iron ore deposits. The Expanse was barely settled, as most of it was near arctic conditions back then, but many backup weapons, facilities, labs and other useful items were supposedly buried or stashed here.

From what little we have been able to gather from remote viewing, the Cradle is almost entirely submerged below the waves, while two-thirds of the Shield is. The entirety of the Expanse appears to be above water, although the most remote images show bizarre terrain deformation and strange discoloration at the southern coasts.

Several island archipelagos and one smaller landmass were indicated on some of the maps, but these cannot be located in the present day. It is possible, based on certain very alarming fragments of records that we found, that the Son was able to literally obliterate these landmasses entirely. A sobering concept.

The Expedition and its goals

Given the combat power of the Lord Hokage, Lord Uchiha, and Orochimaru, it is extremely unlikely that anything that is hostile in the north could provide a serious danger. It is, to be fair, very unlikely anything is even functional, but some of the images we have recovered indicate things similar to golems but clearly not using chakra in some of the ruins of the cities in the south.

Therefore, the expedition has three phases.

The first phase is Landing – establish a safe, stable route through the storms and waterspouts (using Uzumaki water jutsu), find a landing location on the coast that offers shelter from coastal surges, and prepare a base camp using prepared materials and jutsu. Travel time is currently estimated and two and a half months, with scouting landing locations and initial landing likely to stretch that to three. Once landed, a month should suffice to establish a base of operations and enough nature chakra to allow for a long-range hirashin trio linking portal, as well as summons.

The second phase is Establish – build up the base camp to support a small number of additional personnel, entrench chakra spikes and fuinjutsu defenses, and conduct remote mapping and reconnaissance of the surrounding area. Three of the four expected landing locations are within scouting golem range of the ruins of a large city, and mapping of this is an important goal of this phase. Finally and perhaps most importantly, at the end of Establish we can send support personnel to reinforce the location and provide a crew to pilot the Terumi back to the mainland.

The final phase is Expand. Initially, the base camp will stay put, focusing on remote golem operations and mapping only, while the Terumi returns to port, is refitted, and then a larger reinforcement force including younger and talented members of the Conference and the Kage Study Group will board and transit to the base camp.

Once everyone has arrived (along with shipments of food, dirt, wood and other necessities for long term habitation, manned exploration will begin, first in an expanding radius to ensure security, then to the nearest ruined city, and finally to the much larger ruin further south. Expansion of the habitable area by way of jutsu, replacing contaminated dirt, and the use of fuinjutsu will ensure safe transit, and with enough time there is a plan in place to set up a forward base within the ruined city.

At this time, any further planning would be highly conjectural and too likely to be affected by actual conditions on the ground to be of any worth. We recommend a full review of materials after Phase Three and a joint meeting of the Daimyo, Gokage, and Temples to determine our next steps.

Alongside this effort we still have scouting ninja in the furthest north, north of Ice Country. Current weather conditions have stabilized somewhat, but temperatures are still below average by more than fifteen degrees, and weather patterns have shifted as far south as Suna (which is experiencing heavy rains for the first time in centuries).

Hopefully, we will have more answers than questions before the climate change we are seeing the leading edges of becomes a danger to our lives and civilization.