Chapter 24

After several minutes of Devon trying to convince Ronin from the reckless idea of building a base on the Redline, he eventually gave up, as he already knew that once Ronin set his mind on something, he wasn't going to change his mind.

Then, the two of them got to work counting up the treasure, and Devon turned out to be right yet again, does Marines were definitely idiots. With the treasures from both the Marines and the Pirates, Ronin could afford to build all of Konoha, a small fleet of ships, and still have plenty left over. But, he wasn't going to build the whole village right away, as their numbers were still very small at the moment, but Ronin already had a crazy idea of how to build up his numbers, but doing so could make him a direct enemy of both the Marines and the World Government.

After storing all of their treasure in their vault that was covered in protection seals and only let main crew members access it, Ronin and Devon went up to the top deck and stopped in their tracks.

Meli... was cute, a great shot with a pistol, an amazing Navigator, but they learned that day that she was absolutely horrible when it came to teaching.

She managed to teach them all of their chakra natures, but then just set them all to start practicing different Jutsu while she watched over them... at the same time... on a wooden ship. Needless to say, Ronin put a stop to the madness of different Jutsu flying everywhere immediately, fearful that he would lose his ship before they were able to get a new one.

"Von, congratulations, you are now the new teacher. Prioritize drilling Bonney and Rory to quickly get them up to speed. Once they are properly trained, have them assist you in teach the others the basics, and only the basics! We can teach them the bigger Jutsu once we're on solid ground," Ronin said as, as he turned to Meli. "Meli, follow me to the helm. There is going to be a change in direction." Ronin commanded as he walked away to the helm.

Fearful that she made Ronin upset with her bad teaching skills, Meli followed closely after Ronin until they reached the helm and he turned to face her.

"Okay, I have decided where we're going to build our base, and I want you to guide me as I take us there." Ronin said.

To this, Meli grew incredibly confused. "What do you mean you'll take us there? I thought you wanted me to be the Navigator? And where is it you want me to guide you?" Meli asked somewhat frantically. 'Is he so disappointed with me that he doesn't even want me to be his Navigator anymore?!' Meli asked herself in a panic.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ronin scratched the back of his head. "Calm down, will you? I'm not taking over your job. It's just that since I want us to head to the Redline, it'll be faster if I use my cloud powers to take us there. Now, get ready!" Ronin said as he stretched out his hands towards either side of the ship and began forming a giant nimbus under the ship, causing it to rise in the air, shocking everyone.

Just as Meli was shocked from Ronin wanting to somehow build a base of the Redline, she became even more shocked when the ship they were on quickly began rising into the air.

Panic set about the ship quickly until Devon and Rory calmed everyone down, telling them it was just Ronin's powers, though they'd be lying if they weren't nervous about Ronin's power faltering and them falling to their deaths.

Ignoring the constant worry of the crew, Ronin continued to raise the ship until they were in the clouds, the sight before them making them all go silent. The view above the clouds was exactly what Ronin imagined heaven to look like, and for the first time since he's been in this world, he thanked God for giving him power to see this whenever he liked.

Even far above the clouds, where the air started to become thin, they still could barely see the top of the Redline. Half listening to Meli in the background guide him in navigating there, as even the weather above the clouds was temperamental in the Grandline, Ronin flew them close and closer as he began imagining how he could begin carving out his new home, and still keep it a secret.

After a short while, they were finally in front of the Redline, the calm belt a little ways to the right of them that lead to the East Blue, and the exit to the Reverse Mountain some distance to the left of them. Essentially, Ronin planned to build his hidden base at the top of the Reverse Mountain, that way, when their power and numbers grow, they can reach each sea that they needed to. And thanks to the height and the clouds around where they were, a hundred ships could ride the Reverse Mountain from any sea, and still not have a hope of seeing even a hint of their base.

Setting the cloud and ship down carefully at the top of the Redline, Ronin did realize just how much space he had to work with, and it was a lot. At Karate Island, Ronin had sat in on one of Meli's navel classes and saw the current map of the world, which they used to help explain the Grandline, New World, Calm Belt, etc.

When he saw the map, Reverse Mountain was naturally broken up so that the different passages could flow from the different Blues, and it looked not too large honestly. But, this proved to be a major oversight on his part, as now that he thought back, Reverse Mountain on the map, despite it being broken up, was still larger the some of the main islands that was mapped out!

'And if I decide to build deep underground, could I not build under the water passages and connect to the rest of the Redline? Holy shit... was this a more genius idea than I realized?' Ronin thought as looked around at the vast space he had to work with.

The Top of the Redline looked completely alien and magical, like they were on a new world. The ground was naturally made up of hard, red soil and was surprisingly covered in yellow, green, and red foliage and trees, which made it all look like an autumn wonderland. The land was also covered in small, thin mountains and small rivers that came up from the Reverse Mountain, which Ronin was relieved for, as he now didn't have to worry about their water supply or farming.

"Holy shit, Ro. This place is unreal! We're probably the only people to ever be here! They even have new delicious animals running around!" Bonney yelled, as she wiped drool from her mouth.

As if sensing the danger from Bonney, these new, strange animals ran away in fear.

"This is like a whole unexplored continent, as Bon-chan is probably right. The only people who could even come up this far are those with powerful flight fruits, but no one else is crazy like you to live on top of the Redline." Devon said as he hoped off of the ship to look around.

"This will be perfect for us. We have too many elderly, children and pregnant women to constantly bring with us, it's too dangerous. We'll start by building basic homes for now, and build up from there." Ronin said as he too jumped down from the ship.

Thanks to him living alone on the deserted island for two years, Ronin became somewhat decent at building homes out of his earth chakra. With the help of a few other ninjas with Earth Chakra, they were able to build the basic groundworks for their village within a few hours. While they did that, Rory, with the help of some villagers were able to catch some animals and cook up a small feast to honor the start of their brand new village, Kumogakure.

While the others were building homes and walls around the village to keep out any dangers, Ronin spotted the perfect mountain to build his new headquarters in. He thought back on what the Raikage's office looked like, with it's beautiful rounded glass walls and botanical garden on the top of it, Ronin wanted to improve upon it.

He knew that he wasn't going to be able to perfectly replicate the Kumogakure in this world, but he honestly felt like this landscape was far more beautiful and inviting than the original Kumogakure.

Since he doesn't have a glass Kekkei Genkai or the time to go out and buy the supplies, Ronin decided to think outside of the box and try to incorporate his Cloud abilities. Stretching out his head, Ronin visualized his clouds becoming flat and transparent. Then he thought to harden it and mold it in the shape of a square. Much to his delight, it worked! He knew that his Devil Fruit was extremely versatile, but he has yet to find something that he couldn't do with his Cloud abilities.

Already decided that they would stay a few days to get things set up, Ronin took his time and made many cloud windows to be used for the villagers homes as well. The cloud windows were absolutely amazing! Not only were they crystal clear, unlike the dirty glass the middle class was forced to buy and the poor had no hopes of obtaining, but it was also nearly weightless and very durable as well! They were so good, Ronin even played around with the idea of selling them to increase his capital.

Needless to say, after a week of constant and enthusiastic development, the foundations of their new home, Kumogakure, was finally finished! During this time, the village has gone through a lot of changes and thanks to Devon's brilliant mind, even the plans for future development were already prepared for.

The village now, somewhat resembled the Kumogakure from Naruto, with whole living districts and markets built at the top of these mountain spires, while some apprehensive villagers chose to have their homes on the solid ground. They tilled the ground to make soil and began farming with some of the supplies they already had and the new plants that Rory identified as safe to eat.

They even began herding some of the more docile animals, namely a large, 2 meter tall, four-legged bird whose wings were too small to let it fly away. Rory named it a Picken, claiming that it was because they were, "Easy pickens!". Despite how corny it was, the name caught on.

With the help of Devon and Meli, Ronin even developed a way for them to secretly enter and exit the village, and it's impossible without Chakra. Not wanting to forever let everyone in and out of the village personally, but still wanting entry to be controlled, Ronin made two hidden ports. Built on one of the widest rivers, which could hold multiple fleets of ships if needed, Ronin made what he likes to call an Elevator Port.

On the surface, the High Port, resembles a normal port, but once a ship is ready to depart, a shinobi stationed at the port will use his Chakra activate the seals that Ronin made, which will lower said ship down a makeshift shaft that Ronin made, and down to the Low Port. Once at the Low Port, a Shinobi will activate the seal where he is to guide the ship out into the Grandline, the illusory seal that Ronin placed to look like a regular part of the wall.

All in all, the whole process runs smoothly and quickly, that the workings behind it were rather complicated. Luckily through all of this experience, Ronin was finally near the threshold to become a Master in Fuinjutsu, which will allow him to do so much more.

"Okay, I think we have everything set. Meli, we already have the blank eternal log pose register for the village, right?" Ronin turned to as his cute Navigator. During the time on land, Ronin realized that he might've overreacted with Meli a little bit, and the two reconciled, becoming close to each other again.

"I did it as soon as we started building the village!" Meli replied happily. Not only was she able to get close with Ronin again, but with everyone else as well. But she couldn't get Devon to stop calling her princess.

"Good, then that's it. We'll leave a few shinobi here to protect the village and continue development, but I say it's time for us to get back to sailing! It's past time that we find us a decent Doctor and a new ship." Ronin said, hoping on the ship, followed the rest of the crew.

With all of the villagers no longer huddled up on the ship, it was far more spacious and quiet, which made Ronin happy. Not that he didn't like his villagers, but he was starting to get tired of little brats getting snot on him, asking him to pick them up and play with them.

Now situated on the ship and restocked with supplies from around their new home, Ronin gave a nod to the shinobi stationed at the High Port, who quickly activated the seal and sent Ronin down. They had tested the system a few times before, but this was the first practical use of the Elevator Port, and Ronin was pleased with how well it turned out. Exiting Low Port, Meli took over the helm and began sailing again towards Medical Island.

Looking up as they began sailing, Ronin had a small smile as he admired their new sailed with showed Shinigami's new symbol of the three swirling gold tomoe on a black sail. Now that his hidden village is built and secured, Ronin only need to find the reminder of his crew before he could do his next big step to gaining power. Entering the Underworld!