Months slowly passed and soon it was two years after the incident written into the history of the Elemental Nations as the biggest fuck-up of Konoha. Exactly as Rei predicted, Konoha's sudden drop in momentum and their loss of the title of the strongest slowly started yet another subtle power-struggle among the Kumo and Iwa, the only villages strong enough to claim such a title. It was nothing concerning and far from a conflict capable of escalating but thanks to it, Rei finally launched Project UTC.

Uzushio Trading Company appeared in the world and climbed to the heights of top-class companies of elemental nations in less than a month after it started to supply various never-before-seen goods on the market completely unobstructed since all who could and would make it harder for them were supremely busy with their own problems. ​​

The two most likely countries to block them, Earth and Lightning, were locked in a silent childish flexing contest. Konoha and the Land of Fire had a lot of problems with hashing out their economical situation to meddle and could only silently gape like fish when they heard about the re-emergence of their long-thought-to-be-extinct ally. Kazekage was currently too busy with a ridiculous glaring match with the Daimyo of Wind and was quite spectacularly losing. The Land of Water was... quiet. Too quiet and Rei knew what that meant. In the past year, things started to look quite bad for the bloodline users. It was still in the state of quiet before the storm but from the current tension, Rei was sure the initial massacres will begin soon enough.

But... that was completely fine now. That was the whole point of pushing his other unimportant projects to the side and finishing the village! Now that the UTC and ever-loyal Uzumaki clan were up and around on their own independent feet and his village was finished, the only thing that remained was to wait for the shitstorm to start and reap the rewards. After all, why bother putting in the effort and years to train ninjas from scratch when the Kirigakure would so sincerely push their own bloodline clans away? The only way the situation could be better would be if they actually really gift-wrapped them but other than that, it was damn perfect.

There was very little the desperate clans with the threat of extinction looming over their heads wouldn't do to survive.

...

Rei laid on the sofa in his new mansion on the hill overlooking his newly-built village, the same hill from which he and Konan observed his clones at work just a few years prior.

Building the village was honestly a major pain in the ass he will certainly avoid doing in the future. It couldn't be done in phases as what Rei had in mind required him to imbue seals into the land before the building process even started, then also imbue seals into the buildings as they were being built, and at the end, cover the walls of the buildings when they were finished. Only after all of that could Rei add the finishing touches... something he did only yesterday... and add a wide-scale sensory barrier around the whole village.

Honestly, even with the overwhelming force of the free 'cloned' menial labor, there were simply so many details in the process that it took literally ages to finish.

On the brighter side, now that the seals were set up, Rei's control over the village was incredible. He was especially proud of its warmth and cozy atmosphere despite being in the northernmost part of the 'known' world. With the seals, Rei could effectively control the weather around the village on his whim.

That also helped with setting up numerous training grounds with various different environments that were graded on the difficulty of surviving in them. But no matter how Rei tried, the harshest place was still the one where the natural environment was preserved. It was just so frigging cold not even jonins would dare to do a survival test there.

Suddenly, a soft groan resounded through the room and Rei looked at the waking mop of green hair on his chest with a fond smile. He and Pakura really bonded over their common efforts for establishing the village in the past two years. Well, figures two people would find a way towards each other when spending most of their time together.

"Wha'z up?" Pakura sleepily drawled, still half-asleep rubbing her face on Rei's shirt.

"You fell asleep when we were going through the finishing touches on the sensory sealing barrier." Rei informed the woman while subconsciously stroking her hair which almost caused her to purr.

It took a few head-pats and a cup of coffee to get Pakura's brain up and running again and soon, the two people found themselves cuddling on the comfortable sofa while staring at the village through a massive one-way seals-made window in the study of Rei's mansion.

"We created an amazing place..." Pakura said, awe seeping into her tone as she watched the numerous tall towers almost mockingly reaching the heavens, surrounded by houses.

"That we did." Rei's lips widened into a mysterious smile that always made Pakura pout, knowing he was not telling her everything. Good thing she was focused on the village as she leaned her back on his chest so she didn't see it.

They might have worked together for years, he might have to admit he was fond of his green-haired 'secretary', and his girls definitely liked Pakura but there was no way Rei would tell her all of his secrets until she was bonded to him.

Honestly, there was nothing 'hidden' about having tall towers in his new hidden village and Rei knew Pakura had more than one complaint about them but he never listened, always just shrugging her off with a knowing and infuriating smile.

Rei needed these towers and he figured if anybody was capable of firstly, venturing into these inhospitable cold parts on the edge of the world, and secondly, seeing through the illusionary sealing barrier covering the whole village, then towers or not, there was not really much that would hide the village from such a person.

Well, he could have built his village in the spacious system of the underground cavern located in the nearby mountains but Rei didn't want his people living in caves of all places. No matter how majestic of a city he would be able to carve in there.

The purpose of the towers was simple. They, alongside the houses and the streets, were a part of a massive sealing formation that focused on converting nature energy into electricity, making the whole village have an inexhaustible source of energy all year long without the need for power plants. The best part... unless one was better than the Uzumaki Seal Grandmasters, there was no way to sabotage the sealing formation.

It was not like the formation could only produce electricity either. It literally powered up the seals all over the village, whether they were the weather control seals, sensory barrier seals, anti-spying seals based on intentions, gravity seals put over certain training grounds... simply, the whole village was an amalgamation of seals and they needed a power source so why not use something like nature energy that is ever-present in the world?

For that, the placement of every house, street, and tower in the center of the village was carefully thought of and seals were placed in the foundation of these buildings, making various pathways through the whole village, in order to make the sealing formation with the sole purpose of energy production and management. Without it, Rei was afraid the place would most likely already be a smoldering piece of lava-filled crater considering the tens of thousands of seals working at once. There was simply something bound to go wrong, blowing the entire village up.

Good thing too, that Rei knew enough about seals to prevent such an amateurish mistake as overcharging the seals from reducing his future village to a pile of rubble. If you can't manage something... simply make it automatic.

"Speaking of which... you never told me how are you going to name the village." Pakura quipped in an inquisitive tone but Rei simply chuckled. He honestly never thought about it.

"Let's go with something simple, shall we? ... Considering we are on the opposite side of the mountain range than Yukigakure and we will certainly want our name to be known but we also do not want people figuring our whereabouts from it..." Rei hummed thoughtfully before a mischievous glint passed through his eyes and his lips stretched into a grin as he stared at his village through the window, "We shall be known as the Village Hidden on The Other Side."