Chapter 51 - Royal Seven

"What was that?"

Ernie asked Himari as he walked over to her.

Himaria at the time was clenching her fist as if she was trying to remember that feeling.

She was surprised by Ernie's appearance.

"When did you return?"

She returned his question with a question.

"Not too long ago, but what was that?"

Himari smirked.

"Hehe, Wind Breaker! I tried to mimic what you did and this is how it turned out, pretty impressive right?"

"I said shockwave! That was an explosion!"

"What's the difference?"

Himari asked as she shrugged.

Ernie shook his head.

"There is a big difference! We might have had the same idea, but we ended up with two different jutsu's. Your variation is much different from mines."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, so it deserves its own name."

Hearing him say that, Himari grinned.

"That just means I have talent, creating jutsu's aren't as hard as I imagined."

"Don't get to cocky!"

Ernie said to her before she got too big of a head.

Himari pouted her lips in a cute manner as she crossed her arms.

"You're just jealous."

"Nah."

After convincing Himari he wasn't jealous or wished he had her talent, she finally came up with a name for the jutsu. She called it WindBreaker: Explosion.

She told him since it was a variation of his own jutsu, they should keep the name but add explosion at the end.

Ernie agreed with her and approved of the name.

With their reunion, the three of them celebrated Ernie's return home. He told them about what happened while he was away. Soon, he was back to work as he overlooked the village's construction.

Days flew by, and before he knew it six months have already passed.

Ernie was seated at his desk in the village main hall. In his hand were documents and on the desk were papers that needed to be signed.

Sighing, he set the document down for now.

It was an alliance contract that he drew up. After months of being here and building up their village, they finally started to interact more with clans in the other lands.

One of his alliance clans was the Maru clan from the land of earth. It surprised him that they agreed to an alliance, but with things going on in the land of earth, he could understand why.

The Kizamaru clan was weakened dramatically, and now it was just the Kamizuru clan and the Maru clan. Those two while they did ally against the Kizamaru clan, it only lasted until they were weakened to the point the members fled into hiding.

Now with no enemy in sight, the two clans faced each other.

As for the alliance with Ernie, it basically stated he would provide support to their clan in terms of food, weapons, clothing etc. Depending on the situation he could also send shinobi to help them.

In return, the Maru clan would exchange with them food and rare materials, while also sending a few Shinobi to live in the village. These shinobi would be under Ernie's care and they would have to follow his commands.

With this, the two signed an alliance, but Ernie wasn't planning on helping the Maru clan too much. If they lost the war, they would be forced to retreat. Eventually, they would come here and live under his rule.

After knocking twice on the door, Ryo came into the room.

"We have found some ruins north east of here. We aren't sure what to make of them."

"Ruins?"

Ernie asked.

Ryo nodded.

"Give me two ninja to led the way, i'll check it out later."

Ernie said.

Ryo agreed and was about to turn and leave.

"Wait. Bring in Aito."

Ernie told Ryo before he left.

After five minutes, Aito entered the room.

"You called for me?"

Aito asked Ernie.

"Yes, since our village is on track and more skilled shinobi are appearing I was thinking we should implement a system. One that rewards the most skilled while also giving the others a goal to fight for."

Ernie said with a calm tone.

"What did you have in mind?"

Knowing Ernie, Aito already knew he had something going on in his head.

"I wanted to give the 7 strongest shinobi here a title. Each of them will be given special treatment and rewarded for their service. It's an incentive to keep them here. Nothing too special, maybe a small statue of them in the center of the village to let others know who they are. Maybe a fixed amount of money every month. Still, since they would be the most powerful here, that would mean they would have to carry out the most dangerous of task."

Ernie stated.

Aito fully agreed with him.

"Having a statue is nice and it would increase their fame. It will definitely be welcomed, but what would you call it?"

"Shichibukai."

"Like royal seven warriors?"

Ernie nodded.

"I like it. We would need to figure out where they rank in the government, and how to determine who would be a shichibukai. Not to mention how to go about the inheritance of the title once one of the members dies, or retires."