Ch169. Location of the new village

Days passed and the whole fiasco with the failed coup, for better or worse, sent waves through the world. The minor ninja villages started, or at least tried, to be extremely friendly with their Daimyo while the said Daimyo decided to be a bit more cautious of their supposed protectors.

Helping a member of the royal clan to become the Daimyo was fine... at the end of the day, the title would still belong to someone belonging to the said clan, but this was the first case of the open rebellion of a ninja village where its leader tried to usurp the power for himself. And that subtly shifted the entire political situation between Daimyo and ninja villages in the whole world.

As for Yukigakure... they were disgruntled. Those who knew about the rebellion were flabbergasted the strongest ninjas from the villages lost and on top of that, never came back. Those who didn't know about it, those of low rank and strength, were on the contrary bewildered the village higher-ups tried to do such a thing.

But both groups had one thing in common. They both were utterly happy that the Daimyo of the Land of Snow was generous enough to not give the order to execute them or at least, the order to disband the village.

Just like that, Yukigakure, while weakened beyond belief, continued to exist.

...

In the days after the rebellion, while the ninjas of Yukigakure were too afraid to leave their village, Rei finally found a good spot to set up his village. While Yukigakure was situated in the northern part of the country with its back tightly protected by an impassable and dangerous mountain range, Rei decided to establish his village on the other side of these mountains.

The reasons for this were simple. The mountain range was the literal edge of the world... well, not really since Rei knew the world was not flat but as far as the inhabitants of this world were concerned, the mountains were the end. They were so far north, nobody ever found a good reason to try and cross them. After all, the Land of Snow was the northernmost island of the elemental nations and beyond that... nobody has a clue what is there.

The mountains were also incredibly dangerous. While the Land of Snow, or as it was nowadays being renamed after Sosetsu used the Generator, the Land of Spring, changed its climate, the mountains were not included. In front of Yukigakure, the plains that were previously covered in a monumental amount of snow were now covered in colorful flowers and fresh grass but the mountains behind the village are still covered in snow. The reason for this... the scientists simply refused to step into these mountains to set up the device needed for the generator's influence to reach there.

And this worked just fine for Rei.

The mountain range was very treacherous. Massive avalanches, sharp and steep cliffs with a deceptive blanket of snow on them, and their sides frozen enough for sticking exercise to not work, and if that was not enough, because of the harsh environment, the animals inhabiting the place were also a lot stronger than usual. Chakra made sure of that. While it was just a passive strengthening and the size of the animals was only slightly bigger than normal, facing a pack of snow dire wolves enhanced by chakra was no joke even for ninjas.

These mountains were the best natural shield Rei could ever hope for. Nobody would have any valid reasons to even suspect the village is anywhere near them, even if they somehow found out it was located in the Land of Sn-, Spring. After all, only a total madman would have guts to go into these mountains, much less set up an entire village there, no?

That left people with only one way to accidentally reach the village without crossing the mountains. The sea.

Frankly, Rei was not worried about that. In this world, adventure-seeking explorers were rare. Everybody was too busy trying to survive and get stronger or richer in this war and conflict-infested world. The closest thing to 'explorer' was merchants who sailed on the sea to sell their goods in a different country and even they would never get off their normal course in fear of sinking in unknown waters.

Plus, this place was so far up north that nobody had any valid reason to even go here. On top of that, the Land of Snow was too big for merchants to take detours around it. The climate was freezing, the winds were slow... it would take at least half-year to sail around the island. It was simply not worth the time. And that was without taking into account the various dangerous creatures living in these waters... yeah, Rei was fairly positive the village's location would stay hidden unless he outright said where it was. No accidental stumbling upon it was happening anytime soon.

"It's beautiful, don't you think?"

Rei's shoulders suddenly felt added weight as Konan embraced him from behind, pressing herself to his back and leaning her chin on his right shoulder while her arms took a tight but loving hold of his chest.

Rei involuntarily smiled, enjoying the sudden warmth of his lover as he took yet another look at the surroundings around the hill he was standing on. High snowy mountains, blue glittering sea, whitish forests... yeah, the surrounding land was indeed a sight to behold.

"Yes... but the weather leaves a lot to be desired," Rei let his body shudder a bit.

"Mhmm," She distractedly hummed as she started to rub her hands on Rei's chest in an attempt to make him warmer. "It will take a lot of work to make this place habitable." The corner of Konan's lips twitched upwards, "Tough."

Rei could only helplessly groan. In a way, he brought it upon himself. The second his girls saw the climate and felt the cold, they promptly turned around while shivering and left through the portal, back into the warmth and coziness of their mansion in Uzushio where they stayed for the next week under warm blankets before the shiver went away. Only Konan and Tsunade stayed, and even that was to give Rei a smug yet encouraging smile that obviously meant, 'I told you so!'.

"Even with the current amount of clones, it will take at least a year to cover the entire place with a huge sealing matrix that would make the place pleasant and warm without affecting the surrounding lands." Rei half-grumbled. He could not afford to spend more clones on this. His clones were already spread thin with researching new seals, building the new village up, taking care of Uzushio development, setting up the Uzushio Trading Company, and much more.

'Saving Pakura was one of the best things I could ever do. Without her, I would have to take care of my current shinobi forces. Thankfully, she is competent enough to basically act as the Kage in my absence...' Rei fondly thought about how big of a help Pakura was before his cheek twitched, 'now if only she was not so clingy.'

"But that's fine, I would loathe forcing my people to live here if it was not a pleasant and a good place to live in. I never realized that..." Rei apologetically shook his head. He always knew he would have to spend a lot of time making this piece of inhabitable land a cozy and warm home for his village. He just didn't realize it was quite as bad as this.

Rei, as somebody whose body was enhanced by nature energy on a daily basis for the last twenty-plus years, felt only a slight chill but Mei, Ringo, and Pakura apparently almost keeled over the second they stepped through the portal.

"I know," Konan quietly said, enjoying the moment. It was not often she got to spend time with Rei alone. She knew Rei would give her as much alone time as she desired if only she asked for it but that would be simply selfish so these moments were very rare and cherished by her. "I can feel it too. It is cold but... nowhere near the minus forty Celsius degrees, the thermometer is showing. Since you showed me how to enhance my body with nature energy, I never slacked. At least, this will show Mei to be a bit more diligent with the exercises she deems useless."

Rei put his hand on Konan's, squeezing it slightly. "A pity, really. If she did practice the exercise diligently every day, I could slave... ahem, use her to help me out with the village." He said in a very regretful tone, causing Konan to chuckle.

"Yeah... a pity Tsunade has a company to direct. Otherwise, you could make cheap labor out of her too." Konan quipped.

Tsunade was a Senju and Sage. She was somewhat resistant to cold thanks to her Senju physique that started adapting to the environment straight away but the second she activated Sage Mode, she felt no discomfort due to the cold whatsoever. Standing in Konoha forests and standing in this freezing land was no different for her.

"Speaking of which... you-" Rei teasingly started but Konan quickly cut him short.

"Tu, tu, tu..." She playfully poked his cheek with her pointing finger, "I am far too busy with setting up the routes for the Uzushio Trading Company to play builder with you," She said in a sincere tone but her eyes gleamed with unveiled amusement at the situation.

Rei could only sniff in distaste, "In the end, I was abandoned!"

A peaceful silence spread between the two as they watched the hive of clones tirelessly work. It was only ten minutes later, Rei decided to break the silence as he remembered,

"Speaking about Tsunade and Mei, how is that plan going along?"

A slight vicious light flashed through Konan's eyes but it was gone as quickly as it appeared, leaving only a pleasant smile on her face, "Ah... Tsunade is really invested in that. Unfortunately for her, as much as she would want it, she can't go and do the talks with Hokage. If not her appearance, manner of speech, voice, habits, her gestures could reveal her..." Konan let out an annoyed sigh, "So we decided it would be me who will go negotiate with Konoha. It shouldn't be hard, the air in there is currently quite explosive."

"Ouch..." Rei chuckled, now knowing the poor saps fell for their plan. "In the end, the trust between them was only so much..." He shrugged and without a warning, spun on his heel while lifting the body of Konan, who yelped from surprise, and putting her on his shoulder before creating a portal to his room in his dimension, "Since you will be away in Konoha for a bit, I think a few days spent together are in order!"

Nobody saw Rei nor Konan for the following week.