Chapter 9: Expansion
After the deal was done I stayed on the island with the clans and send out shadow clones charged with natural energy so they don't dispel any time soon. The reason for that was to gather more people under my authority and start to create something more significant than it is now.
My clones went in different directions towards families that were proficient in some arts and also towards unoccupied places where I wished to claim ownership, all I would have to do just hire locals, since there was a lack of central government in the world because when the events of Otsutsuki family problems took place, a lot of people were slayed therefore resulting in the crush of all imperial families and their countries, now entire world only consisted of families that control some land, while also having occasional battles or tries to kill their opponent without any trace left, because nobody wanted to see Hagoromo upset.
One of my clones went towards Spiral Islands, a chain of 36 islands that all had unique characteristics. I plan to make my main base here, I will seal this entire place off and use it to contain the majority of forces and most trusted allies.
Another place to visit was Moon Island, where some small tribesmen were living, island itself was quite big and contained a lot of natural resources in the form of metals and a habitat that allowed people to grow almost anything there. This will be the main source of income, it will be an isolated island, yet not hidden. There will live those that wish for a quiet life and work in the production chain of things.
Another place will be Sea islands, this land will be used to create an official country that will serve as an official representation of our force in the world. This place is incredibly rich with fertile soil and has a lot of places with metals that will help to maintain the image of the country. There were also 3 big islands nearby this place, Jiro, Taro, and Demons Island. All 3 are inhabited by various animals that vary in strength. This could be a good hidden training ground for people that will be under my command.
Other clones went to 3 families that will be the base of my future income. The first one is the Kikichi family, good craftsmen that are experienced crafters using glass and wood. Another family is Tanaka, right now they are in decline, they are a family that took after my blacksmith from one of my past lives, I can be sure of their skill since I was the one to train their ancestors and they will come in handy.
While that was going on, there was another family that I have in mind, they are very passionate about science and, therefore might be proven useful they are the Hoshi family. They will be responsible for the advancement that is made in our country.
I also send a clone to another family. Aikawa family. Those people are blessed with strong bodies and for the last few centuries they were in the art of war, but because now is a peaceful time they are also in decline, therefore I think it won't be hard to convince them.
This is it for the foundation of the country. For now, I can not afford to have more people since that will be too hard to maintain until skilled personnel are ready to take over the positions.
— 10 years past —Year 107 After Hagoromo's birth—
During the last 10 years, I have trained all the people that were in my care and wrote a lot of books that were there to help people learn. During those years all families became clans that started to expand, they didn't fail me and swear their loyalty to me while keeping this under the curtails, nobody knew that we existed.
We sealed islands that we were using as a place for all training and knowledge, leaving only sea and moon islands in the open. Both islands grew a lot, sea islands especially since now it was declared as a new country where you could trade unique goods and have fun.
All the people that wished to master something and were investigated beforehand were transported to Spiral Islands, most of the people were kept in the dark about location and checked twice before coming to the training. All people knew that we had to keep this place hidden and there was nothing they could do about it.
During those times I also developed seals that were forced upon every personnel that trained on the Spiral Island, since nobody could disclose its location and nobody was permitted to say anything about its existence. During those times I created what I wished for. In Spiral Island lived only those that were big players in the country and those strong enough to be a force to reckon with or those that are very talented in the arts and worthy of living here. The biggest island was now allocated as a place where people lived, while all the other ones were renamed for their purpose.
The second biggest island was named Arts Island. Island where a school was located and various things were taught, its size allowed it to make a training ground for everything, from ninjutsu to glassblowing. There all the children until they turn 15 years old were educated, I was highly against anyone finishing their education before 15, since I knew that children should be children. Even with my small knowledge of psychology, I knew that stressful experiences could harm and twist personality while the mind is still unprotected, I didn't take chances, and neither I will any time in the future.
While they had pressing matters such as exams and such, they still had holidays during which they were allowed to go back home and spend time doing whatever they wished for. But this island was only for young children. Until 10 years or until they finish their program children stayed on Art Island and learned what they needed for the specialization that they chose, while later they were sent to other smaller ones where each specialization was taught in depth.
I didn't forbid graduation in advance if someone shows potential, but even in this case, those that did were offered more knowledge or research something that was not yet developed or created. If those that graduated early wished to do something else, they were given jobs within Island that would show a good performance for future pros.
I didn't create this community not in the sake of training those without goals and ambitions. I created this community to be something this world had never seen, and in case someone tried to cheat the system he would be thrown out of the country while his memories would be erased. Because both I and the Kotobu clan had a high affinity with Yin we were able to develop skills that allowed us to erase memories of the people if needed, it was crude since it just removed all memories in a chosen time frame, but I never said that I will take pity in those that do not worth my time, I was too fed up with people that think of them self as some kind of royal and do nothing, but waste their life.
Each of the small islands had masters of their art that were proficient enough to teach. There was an island for masters such as Kenjutsu, Fuinjutsu, Iryojutsu, Bukijutsu, Taijutsu, Nintaijutsu, Samurai techniques, Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu.
I didn't like the idea of having something like Samurai, but at the same, I could not deny its popularity during this age. Ninjutsu was yet to be made public or created by someone, so all the stories would revolve around someone akin to Samurai, so I had no other option. Despite that, all future Samurai were taught other fighting techniques using chakra, since I would not back down from such a useful tool and foolishly follow traditions. And now because of that, we had someone akin Neo-Samurai.
There were also islands where the best of the best experts on forging weapons reside, to craft weapons for our elite, which were graduated at the age of 15. Those were the perks of being one of the best warriors. While if you happen to be proficient in something other than fighting arts, we would offer internships with the best of the best in the said art, making both parties strive for top spots.
Another island was allocated for a library where people could learn depending on their specialization and access level.
There was a greenhouse island that I sealed off and created an artificial ecosystem that was filled with Natural Energy to produce the best products for fighters, healers, and scientists.
There was an arena island, an island where tournaments with prizes were held against graduate vs graduate and also against beasts that were captured from nearby islands and islands close to the Land of Sea especially Demon Island where the most furious of the beasts live that could even give season fighters run for their money. Sadly enough arena could only be used by fighters, but it also provided a form of entertainment to the people on the island as well as a thrill for losing and winning money using bets that were not forbidden here, since either way all money here will come back to the government either way.
And now for my greatest creations. 6 islands, the smallest of all were the ones that I put the most effort into. Each island had aligned elements to it. To create those I could not do it without the tailed beast supporting me or helping me build it.
There was a fire island, that was completely sealed off not to emit extreme head that was coming from it. Inside this island lived Matatabi, during those years she grew quite a bit and proudly stood at almost 3 meters in height. The entire island was on fire, with lava rivers instead of water and an artificial volcano that proudly stood in the middle, for that, I had to ask for a favor from Murata.
Another island was wind island which Chomei was glad enough to help me build. There was a constant storm and tornado ramping, having nothing but barren land all around.
Water Island, is an island with a lot of rivers and small lakes. There was constant rain and vapor that never disappeared. This island never saw a ray of sunlight.
Lighting Island was one of the hardest ones but with the help of jewels that contained this element, I was able to create this island as well. All it needed is some chakra that Kurama kindly provided(Not like he felt useless during the creation of all the things). Using those things I was able to create a constant storm inside of the Island making it a perfect one for the purpose.
Earth Island was nothing special, just a land of stones that was met with constant earthquakes making it the most unstable.
And Yin Island. Something that I required to bribe Isobu for, over time his sky attitude only grew and only by constant kind words that made him dig a hole to hide from me and my subordinates, but in the end he agreed and as per his request we will leave him alone. This island was just black plain, nothing but black plain, there were no trees that you could see and no earth under your feel that you could see, there you could not have a shadow, since light never reached this place.
All of those islands were created for one purpose, for people to find harmony with their said element. This was a VIP training ground that only hard-working students were able to use to practice their control and mastery of elements in order to improve their strength.
Other than this everything was thriving, people on Moon Island were mainly craftsmen that created products that were then delivered to the Land of Sea and sold to traders that visited it regularly, therefore, earning ourselves a shit ton of money.
During all of the time I also practiced with Mutatabi and Kurama, therefore, expanding my chakra reserves and also developing an exceptionally good affinity towards fire and wind, making me manipulate them with such ease that the greatest of the people in this world will be envious of me, but it was their bad luck, since they never saw my skills, since right now was an era of peace and until Hagoromo is still alive it will be there. Everyone fears his strength and they will never oppose his strength that is out of their leagues, even in his decline, after all, he is still the son of the most powerful person on this planet.
I was happy with my progression in control of the elements and chakra control. During those years I and my subordinates invested a lot of time inventing new techniques using hand seals since I made them aware that they affect the way chakra flows and manifests.
We created dozen of techniques for each element and hundreds of others that included Fuinjutsu, medical jutsu, and weapons techniques. For taijutsu, I created a style of fighting that will be unique to our community, that was based on hundreds of years of battles that I had to go through and proved themself in practice.
Over the years clans grew, and 3 main founding clans were now as strong as ever, each of clans Aikawa, Namikaze, and Kotobu were now counting around 100 members, and most of their members were either applying for the school which starts at 4 years old or still were too young to apply. I can't say more about it, since most of them were just born from the comfortable life they were living and bribes from the government and my personal encouragement, therefore, having a lot of babies.
During our tight security and ways to prevent information from spreading, we were able to achieve complete security. During those years I created more perfect seals or marks like someone says that are placed upon any warrior or resident of Spiral Islands.
Seal prevented any information leaking if said person is outside Spiral Islands, only I and a few of my close subordinates were able to ignore this function, but nobody complained since everybody knew that this is the rule that everybody follows. Other functions allowed sending one message but also triggered suicide technique, therefore allowing people not to suffer in case they don't have the means to escape or can't handle torture, I know during this time it was unnecessary to use, but I don't know when chaos will start.
Another function of the seal allowed it to send distress signals and any close fighters would be able to feel this signal, therefore, giving them a chance for help, but the range was still on the rather low side since it was all based on the soul strength of the person or rather the strength of his soul. The greater the strength of the soul the greater the range, I didn't want to tie it to chakra since distress signals are means to help, not to take away your last bits of strength to send a signal. While we tested that, we figured out that the largest distance that the seal could send a distress signal to is 500 km and the smallest only 50 km.
I wanted to create something like Tailed Beasts that were able to communicate with each other no matter the distance, but after researching such phenomena, I figured out that this has nothing to do with my lack of knowledge, but the fact that all tailed beasts were created from one single entity, therefore being one if combined. They were simply all parts of a single whole and that is the reason they could communicate no matter the distance.
Now for my student, she showed the exceptional potential that allowed her to rise in the ranks and sit as my assistant. She is still young only 20 years old, but still without a partner, I saw her trying to make her moves on me, but I didn't love her, and for me, it's either love for the rest of my life or just satisfying lust. I didn't plan to have any children and didn't want to make close ties that would hurt too much when I won't be able to see people dear to me in the future and waste the only chance I could not give it to the person I didn't love.
I took a glance at the documents and sighed, it is a tiresome job, but I did it occasionally while handling the rest of the unimportant decisions into the hands of my subordinates.
I looked towards my student that stood by my side and felt that she was nervous, more than usual, I guess I will have to talk to her, better now than later.
—— On the balcony — —
I looked from the top floor of the tower that was built in the center of the hidden community we have here. It was somewhere about 10 meters in height and made in the Japanese castle style, making it one of the most beautiful buildings in this village. I looked in the distance on the horizon where only the sea could be seen and some islands that were used for our purposes. It is a sight to behold, nothing of those sorts could be found yet in this world and I'm proud to be the one to have a hand in this.
I didn't look at Ozawa that stood by my side since even with my willpower it was hard to ignore the girl and leave her in this state for long. Over the years she grew into a mesmerizing woman, with long black hair and deep blue eyes. Skin flawless as river and white as petals of the rose, nothing was short of beautiful in every aspect of her body. During her workouts, her muscles turned lean and her curves became toned. She stood at 1.7 meters 20 cm shorter than me, but her elegant figure was a dream for most of the men that they could not reach.
I broke the silence "I know how you feel, but at the same time I can't answer your feelings. I have promise to keep and I can't take it back, unfortunately my plan require a lot of time and there is no way I will be able to achieve them during this life. But above everything else, I don't love you Ozawa."
I turned my head and looked at the girl, no… a woman in front of me, I could see some moisture gathering on the sides of her eyes, but she kept silent "I can't answer your feeling since I don't love you, and I can't give you what you want because I know that will hurt both of us in the end. I know words like sorry will do nothing to solve that, but I want to come clean and I wish for our relationships not to be broken. I hold you dear at my heart, but I can't let you closer, this is as close as I can allow myself right now."
She stood frozen with tears running down her cheeks. We stood there in silence, not breaking our sights that never left each other eyes "Why? Tell me why? Why can't we be together, have children and be a family? Why? Am I not worthy of you? Are you not satisfied with my face or my performance? Why do you keep bluntly ignoring my feelings? Just answer me truthfully, I never wished for you to suffer, I love you dearly. But at the same time, I can't give up the love that I fostered for 10 long years. Give me a reason enough to stop in my pursuit!"
I knew that letting people close is hard, sad, and brings a lot of guilt, but at the same time, I didn't regret such a decision. This life made me change my point of view. To stop treating life as a disposable resource I have plenty of. I stopped on the path of the loner and started to walk on the path of someone that will once again regain his former emotions, a path that will make my old roots bloom anew. "There is something I had kept a secret from from everyone … witch is a reason of my refusal."
----
If you like the story support it with your PS.
I hope you enjoyed it, for now, I posted all the prepared chapters I have, so might take a few days before the next release.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone