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The ripples created by the Chunin Exam were too great; the very foundation of the Elemental Nations was shaken. For some months, everything was calm and quiet before it all exploded at once. The lives of everyone changed. It mattered little whether they were petty merchants or the Daimyo of nations everyone's was affected.
The business Akihara conducted increased consecutively in the following months. They used Jigen's dimension to transport materials at a very quick pace and at very little cost. Small merchants connected to Akihara gained margins never seen before. They made years' worth of profits in just a few months. Ryoichi formulated a modern system so that merchants wouldn't clash over rates and undercut each other to sell more.
The system consisted of assigning their products to a single merchant in any particular area and also setting a minimum price rate that they were not allowed to go below. To ensure the smooth working of this system, Ryoichi had his shinobi survey these merchants at irregular intervals, disguised as buyers.
The system maintained fair profit margins for all parties involved and also created jobs for the shinobi of Akihara Village.
Akihara's business wasn't the only thing that bloomed in the following months its power and influence also increased considerably. After news of the defeat of all the Kage spread across the Elemental Nations, the rulers of all nations turned their eyes toward Akihara. A village with no backing, yet unmatched strength. Many Daimyo made offers to sponsor the village, but Ryoichi declined them all. No amount of money could move him, and no power was enough to make him comply. He was already the strongest in the Elemental Nations and richer than most countries.
Beyond these political and financial changes, the momentum of the Shinobi Villages also shifted. At first, they quieted down eerily so. One could say those few months were the safest time the Elemental Nations had seen, where deaths and casualties fell by more than ninety percent. Unfortunately, such peace didn't last long. As time passed, the pent-up frustration and anger finally exploded. The Shinobi Villages became more active than ever, their attitudes increasingly uncaring and ruthless. Of course, this frustration and anger were never directed at Akihara Village, they were too afraid to so so. Instead, their rage turned toward everyone else.
At first, they unleashed this aggression on civilian villages and smaller shinobi settlements. But it didn't take long for that hostility to turn on one another as well.
As more months passed, conflict among the Great Shinobi Villages intensified. The only reason a full-blown war hadn't started was that each village remained wary of Akihara. They wanted to see its reaction whether they would stay neutral, as the masked being had claimed, or involve themselves and support a faction.
Only after Akihara's neutrality was confirmed did the first move come, igniting the Second Shinobi War years earlier than it should have begun.
The destruction of the Uzumaki Clan heralded the Second Shinobi War. It hit the Elemental Nations like a charging tailed beast.
The air around the continent changed immediately. Once filled with hope and optimism from the recent peace and prosperity, it was now thick with death and despair.
Shinobi wars were more brutal than any clan wars from the previous era. Destroying and massacring villages within enemy territories became the first strategic move. The second was obliterating their businesses and farmland.
Most Great Villages were stocked with enough food to last years, but the same couldn't be said for the small villages and towns under their control that got caught in the crossfire.
In all that chaos, the only reliability was Akihara and its supply of wheat and other grain products. Although their prices, too, increased during the war, they remained affordable for those willing to do a day of hard work. The reputation Akihara built during these times caused a population surge. People from all over the world came for the stability and peace offered within its closed walls. The empty houses of Akihara filled in no time, and expansion began once more.
While the situation in the Elemental Nations changed drastically, so too did Ryoichi's life. After he and Tsunade healed Nawaki a year before the Chunin Exam, they got engaged.
Before the Second War began, they wed and started their life as newlyweds. It was a tough time for Ryoichi to adapt. He wasn't used to sleeping and waking up beside someone, hell, he wasn't even that used to sleeping, let alone beside someone else.
During the first few nights, his nerves and senses were so heightened that he woke at the slightest movement from Tsunade. His body wasn't used to being so defenseless next to someone.
But he adapted and eventually managed to sleep beside her. At first, he didn't like it, but he soon grew to enjoy it, letting his guard down and sleeping without a care in the world.
His sleep, which had barely lasted an hour or two, gradually became a proper eight hours. His hypersensitive instincts no longer startled him awake at Tsunade's slightest movement.
Ryoichi knew how dangerous such a habit could be, but he didn't mind. He knew he could never sleep like that beside anyone but Tsunade. She was the only person after Ayame he truly cared for, even if that care was twisted.
The little girl who had held his broken self and cried for him when he had no tears left had unknowingly carved out a place in his slowly freezing heart.
It was one of the reasons he always bantered with her, despite it not being in his nature. He always enjoyed seeing her various expressions.
But Ryoichi's marriage wasn't all roses, it significantly cut into his personal research time. So when the Shinobi Villages banded together and attacked the Uzumaki Clan, he didn't stop them. It gave him the much-needed break from married life.
Tsunade, enraged by the act, decided to join the frontlines. Ryoichi didn't stop her. He simply placed small, hidden protections on her, nothing major, just a battalion consisting of fifty Kage-level shinobi.
He ensured they only protected and supported her from the shadows, without her or anyone else ever noticing.
With her away, Ryoichi threw himself into his research, without a care for the world. His people and organizations were completely self-reliant during the Second Shinobi War. Not that they needed his oversight at this point. Even without him, they could suppress the current shinobi world.
At this point, Ryoichi only read the weekly reports on Tsunade, and every once in a while, reports from Mirai.
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