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It was past midnight when Ryoichi returned to his house.
He had to drop Tsunade to her home since the alcoholic woman drank too much and lost control of herself.
As someone who likes to be in control, It baffles Ryoichi how someone can lose so much control of themselves. If he was someone else he could have taken advantage of the completely drunk woman.
Anyway, dropping her off and getting some suggestive smile from Mito and another dinner invitation, Ryoichi returned to his house and was greeted by Nanami. After ordering her to prepare a bath Ryoichi went straight to his laboratory.
Activating the silencing and anti-spying seals he quickly went to work.
Ryoichi retrieved an operation blade from the table and quickly and cleanly made a small cut on his abdomen. He used his fingers to pry it open and prevent it from healing.
After he made a decent-sized hole something crawled out. It was a small mechanical worm that he bought from the Tower's sources.
It was a special type of machine that had all the instruments installed to collect and store DNA samples. It can collect large amounts of blood, cells, and other DNA carriers and shrink them to fit it inside its body.
It can enter a person's body and hide from all kinds of sensors without harming said person.
This particular machine was made by humans of few hundred years future to collect the DNA of other species stealthily.
Ryoichi thought the device was quite useful and bought one and planted it in his body. He knew he would be heading to Hagoromo's timeline where he would be able to collect multiple DNA that could make him come closer to his goal by a few steps.
Ryoichi looked at five different blood and cell samples. He took out samples from the worm and placed them into his self-built PCR machine to analyse them.
*humm~* the machine started to hum once he placed the samples and turned it on.
After placing them, Ryoichi turned on a bunch of other defensive seals and exited the lab. He went upstairs and locked the lab before placing some more seals that would notify him if someone came closer to the area. Once he was done he directly went to the bathroom and entered the bath. After soaking himself for an hour or so, he exited the bath, refreshed. He ignored Nanami's seduction along way and went straight to his bedroom after taking his clothes from her hand.
He entered the room and changed into the clothes Nanami handed. After doing that he turned towards his study table and spoke.
"Your stealth has improved." The moment Ryoichi's voice travelled, the shadow beside the study table wiggled and slowly grew a meter or two in height.
"Not enough to evade your senses, master." Came a calm melodious reply as the shadow receded revealing the charming face of the intruder.
"And it never will," Ryoichi said as he approached the table and sat down on the chair, ignoring the smiling Mirai
"So, what are you doing here?"
"I was here for the annual mission payment and extension. Thought I should meet you since you have never gone off the grid for so long."
"You did something unnecessary. I was planning to visit the Village tomorrow, we would have met then." Ryoichi said he removed his glasses. His emotionless eyes fell on Mirai causing her to subconsciously straighten up and lose any humour she had. Mirai knew she had the most freedom in any of Ryoichi's subordinates. But she also know her master and the limits he allowed her to express. And this one of the dangerous moments she very close to crossing that limit.
" …I apologise for doing something unnecessary, master. Then, I'll be taking my leave." Mirai bowed her head and quickly tried to left.
"Wait." But Ryoichi's voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Yes…?"
"Now that you are here… tell me how did the annual meeting went. Did the Hokage ask about the rapid development of Akihara Village?"
"He expressed some concerns but all those were washed away with an increased number of annual missions request for this year."
"Is that so…"
"Yeah, the old man is too greedy, he will probably ignore everything as long as we keep posting missions in Konoha's mission centre."
"Yes. That's why I told you to keep requesting missions from hidden villages despite having the necessary manpower." Ryoichi nodded as he brought out a scroll and started drawing a blueprint which piqued Mirai's interest but she refrained herself.
"How's the village development going." Mirai straightened at that question.
"It is going beyond well." She answered briefly before diving into details.
"We are producing more food than we know what to do with, the modified paddy crops grow too fast and can be harvested twice in a single season. The wheat crop you introduced for when the season is not right for the rice is too good for the lands. Not only does it occupy them during the off-season but it also lets them recover for rice next season."
"Hmm, Is that so?"
"Yes!"
"Have you introduced the wheat in the market yet."
"Yes."
"How are the responses?" At that question, Mirai paused which caused Ryoichi to remove his eyes from the scroll and look at her.
Feeling his gaze on her again, Mirai quickly summarised her thoughts and spoke again. "It wasn't good at first since people were too used to eating rice but once we dropped the price, sales improved since there is no shortage of poor people in Elemental nations."
"Hmm." Ryoichi hummed in agreement and returned back to scribbling the blueprint.
Mirai took that as a sign and continued her report.
"We are already done with the second expansion, the wall build this time is sturdier than the previous ones and since our seal master unit has improved their mastery, the defensive and attacking seals are also better than previous walls" Mirai said with a prideful smile. Over the years as Akihara village grew and its population increased, it had to expand its walls.
Ryoichi didn't let Mirai destroy the original wall and built a new one with a bigger radius, no. he told her to reinforce the original wall and create another wall surrounding the original wall. He called the space inside the original wall as core region and the space between the original wall and the newly built wall as inner region.
And now six years after that expansion he told them to create a third wall and an outer region even though they didn't need it as they still had many empty spaces in the inner region.
"So the second expansion has been completed, huh? What about the free land south of the village?"
"It's being ploughed as we speak and will be ready to farm soon, but…" Mirai hesitated and seeing her hesitation Ryoichi raised his head and asked.
"What?"
"But master, I still can't understand why you asked for the second expansion and increase of farming land. Both seem a waste of resources and time. We already have more food we can sell or store and we are also not lacking space for further population growth." Mirai finished while looking into Ryoichi's emotionless eyes.
Ryoichi didn't speak for a few seconds which increased Mirai's nervousness. Just as Mirai thought she had done something unneeded again, Ryoichi spoke.
"It's a preparation."
"Preparation? For what, master?"
"For the upcoming Shinobi War."
"War? But master I see no such signs. The great villages are in a power balance and the near decade-long peace has been kind to them all. Why would they wage a War? It makes no sense." Mirai said and for a moment she almost felt her emotionless master chuckle. Almost.
"Sense? Which War has ever made sense? Most of them are waged for petty reasons like pride, greed, envy or ambition of some powerful people. And as long as there are no monsters like Hashirama to curb the pride and ambition of these people there will always be War."
"Sorry master, even with all these years of your teaching, my thoughts are naive." Mirai apologized with a look of realization.
"Don't be sorry, be logical and remove such thought processes from your mind."
"Yes."
"Here, take this blueprint and have it built. All the instruments and materials are written with step-by-step instructions." Ryoichi said as he handed her the blueprint he was creating. "And kill whoever builds the machine.
"I understand, master." Mirai nodded seriously.
"Now leave and remember to store as much food as possible. The vacuum left by the Second Shinobi War will be the best time to increase Akihara village's power and influence." Ryoichi said and then continued inwardly.
'So will the Third Shinobi War that will follow in a few years after the Second.'
"Yes!" Mirai acknowledged the order and with that disappeared in the shadows.
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