Ch147. The start of a... town?

Rei caressed Ringo's hair as she dozed off in his lap after she carefreely threw Samehada at Yugito with words, "I think this one will fit you well considering you are jinchuuriki...". It was funny how no matter Yugito protested that Greatsword and nimble cat-like fighting style didn't go together, Ringo just shrugged her off and said she believed Yugito would find a way before promptly monopolizing Rei's lap for herself with a smug self-satisfied expression.

"She must be really exhausted," Mei commented, half-glaring at Ringo clad only in a skimpy yukata after taking a long bath to scrub off all the dust from her fight. "How could it be so," Mei started carefully poking Ringo's butt, making her whimper, "bouncy..." She muttered to herself while her free hand was comparing her own...

Rei just chuckled and let the girl to her own fantasies while he read his notebook where all his rough ideas on his Bijuu project were written. It was a very slow-going and tiring process. His days were filled with research, research, sex, and more research... but he was sure it would be worth it in the future.

Strong or not, neither of his group was at the level of the end-game Naruto or Sasuke, much less Kaguya. The anime made it seem so easy...

In under four years, a total orange-loving Hokage-screaming loser became a deity level powerhouse.

In under four years, an edgy duckbutt-haired language-impaired Hn!-avenger-wannabe became a deity level powerhouse.

All because of some nonsense about being the reincarnations of Indra and Asura, some magical eye-power, and beast sealed in the stomach.

'When one really looks into how exactly Naruto and Sasuke got so strong, it is really sad because they are nothing but predetermined to be such. What hard work? I bet at least half of the jonin put more hard work into being a ninja than Naruto's bird brain could ever comprehend or Sasuke's avenging tunnel vision could discover.' Rei sighed. 'I am so jealo-, ahem, pissed!'

Becoming Jonin was not really all that easy. The amount of seemingly useless skills one had to perfect was mind-boggling. It was not all just about fire-power and killing things. Not entirely.

Rei was putting in the hard work. Training, studying, researching, earning money, playing politics through the Biri-Biri company, and much more. He was progressively getting stronger too! He was also making his girls stronger and was delighted when they put in the needed effort to become incredibly strong without him even having to ask them for it. But the main characters? What the fuck was with some old deity-class world-peeking geezer touching the two boys and them suddenly gaining the necessary additional power to face against Kaguya.

'Maybe I should have chosen some plot-armor bullcrap during my reincarnation?' Rei hummed jokingly, getting back to his Bijuu-creation research as he enjoyed Ringo's silky hair in between his fingers and her soft cheek pressed into his thighs.

In the end, as long as he had his girls and all people he cared about were happy, was there even a reason to complain?

...

Rei sat on his couch with Konan sitting on his right side with her back straightened and with a pondering expression on her face while Tsunade was sitting on his left side, leaning on his arm, totally uncaring about the meeting. Only these two knew what Rei wanted to say and while Konan was racking her brain to think about how to improve or make Rei reach his goal easier, Tsunade didn't care. If Rei told her to do something, she would do it but leaning on Rei was more enjoyable than thinking about the current topic.

Opposite them, Mei sat in Ringo's lap. Since they found a common interest in weapon forging, Ringo and Mei became almost inseparable... and together, more often than not, even flammable. Rei might have repaired five houses per day thanks to his clones but Mei and Ringo destroyed at least twelve per week in their 'sisterly' arguments that left craters all over Uzushio.

Both were a bit curious about what Rei wanted to talk about since he grouped them all together but while Mei's eyes were gleaming in interest, Ringo had a bored expression. There was no way Rei would call all of them together for a fight at this stage so... meh?

"I called this meeting because the rebuilding of Uzushio is mostly finished. We have a village... now we need villagers." Rei said, taking a teacup from the table.

Mei and Ringo instantly snapped at attention.

"We are finally going to make a ninja village?" Ringo's eyes gleamed.

Since she got to know Rei will eventually make his own village, she wanted to create a group similar to the Seven Swordsmen... alas, she was currently the only swordsman and with Mei, they were in the stage of finding out how to create swords on par with Kiba at the very least. That was partially the reason why she took Samehada, the most incredible of the Seven Swords. She needed an example to study...

"No..." Rei shook his head, causing Ringo to deflate, "We are making a civilian town with the goal of making it into a very important trading hub in the future." He continued, and enjoyed Ringo frowning for a bit before he added, "Officially at least."

Ringo and Mei looked at each other, tilting their heads in confusion.

"What do you think the 'hidden' in Hidden Village stands for?" Konan added, a bit annoyed at their dull expressions. 'Modern Ninjas... really.' She scoffed, making both Ringo and Mei blush a bit from shame.

"I didn't think of that..." Mei admitted with a high dose of sarcasm in her tone before her tone turned to seriousness as she looked at Rei. "So you want the ninja village to be hidden behind the appearance of a civilian town? You know that won't work for more than a few years, right? Konoha already tried that."

"Of course not. The actual Ninja Village will be in a different location and we will use seals to thoroughly hide its existence. But that's not important for now. First, we need to build Uzushio into an important trading town and for that, we need people."

"Why not use the merchants and employees of the Biri-Biri company?" Ringo asked but Tsunade gave her a deadpan look, causing her to sheepishly smile in confusion which made Konan giggle and Tsunade groan.

In the past months, Tsunade took over Konan, or Na Kona as was her alias, and became Nadetsu Juusen, the new director of the Biri-Biri company with her Wood Clones that could literally be molded to a different image. Nadetsu Juusen was a tall tanned lady with an average chest, blue eyes, and blond hair of a darker shade. There was no way to relate her to the real Tsunade in any way. Plus the wordplay with her name was so lame, childish, and elementary no self-respecting ninja would actually believe it to be more than a dumb coincidence.

"Obviously it's to avoid exposing that Uzushio and the Biri-Biri have ties. The entire success of the Biri-Biri company is built on the fact that we have no affiliation with any village or nation and provide equal services to everyone at the same price." Tsunade explained with a patient tone before gesturing to Konan. "It took Konan and Karubo years and the entire third war had to happen to firmly establish this fact in the minds of our clientele who believed us to still be biased towards Kirigakure since we originated in the Land of Water. Make no mistake, the Mizukage and the Water Daimyo were pissed at us for not showing any favoritism towards them during the war. Showing a favorable relationship is fine but outright putting our people to Uzushio is a blatant show of favoritism and bad for the business. And I am not even talking about the message such an action would send."

Despite her tendencies, Tsunade was groomed to be very skilled in politics and economy from an early age. It was just that most of the time, she disregarded everything in favor of resolving her problems with a straight punch to the noggin.

Alas, the second Konan discovered there was a bit more to Tsunade's mind than rampaging around like a drunk half-mad badger and healing, she started grooming her, Nadetsu Juusen, to be her 'successor' as she started showing that she, Na Kona, was 'ill' and would eventually step down.

In Rei's opinion, it was a good move since Tsunade was indeed more able in these matters compared to Konan. Naturally, that particular agreement took a lot of intimacy, a promise of more time spent together, which Rei planned to do anyway since he missed her when she was in Konoha... not that she had to know that... and Konan had to 'donate' twenty of her paper clones to do the paperwork for Tsunade. After all, paper Jutsus were a huge advantage there. All in all, Tsunade only dealt with the direction of the company and the most important stuff.

"So? You will probably want highly loyal people acting as merchants for Uzushio and the first inhabitants so... I guess the strategy will be the same as what you told Karubo to do to get employees for the Biri-Biri? We are going to save some poor bastards and offer them a safe haven, food, and comfortable life and slowly build their feeling of belonging... some basic manipulations, maybe?" Tsunade bit the tip of her finger and Rei smiled, patting her head.

"I, Konan, and Tsunade are going to the Land of Grass. Ringo and Mei can focus on their forging or training Yugito in Mei's case," He gave the pouting girl a knowing look before his expression shifted to seriousness itself, "but please, stop fighting in the open. If you feel the itch to destroy a big plot of land, go to the Dimension." He strictly said, narrowing his eyes at the two women who gulped and started frantically nodding.

Rei smiled. "That is all I wanted to say to you."