"It's snowing..."
Pushing open the window of his room and leaning out, Hii Kōri watched the snowflakes falling silently and took a deep breath of the icy air.
He raised his hand to catch one, feeling the cold gradually melted in his palm, and showed a pleased smile: "The first snow. That's a good omen."
Four years had passed since he graduated early and became a chūnin. At the end of his seventh year in Sunagakure, he was seeing the first snowfall since arriving in this world.
"Mm... good morning~ Kōri..."
A short, light whimper squeezed from her nose, seemingly chilled by the cold air seeping in through the window. Karura sat up from the futon with messy hair, rubbing her sleepy eyes and greeting her lover by the window.
"Haven't you been getting lazier lately, little rabbit?"
Hii Kōri walked back to the bedside, adjusted the collar of her clothes left and right to cover the red marks on her collarbone, then gave her a not-too-light, not-too-heavy tap on the head, causing the still-not-quite-awake girl to let out adorable whimpering sounds.
"It's the holidays... holidays at the hospital are really precious~"
Languidly lying in her lover's arms, rubbing her face against his neck and acting spoiled, the little rabbit grumbled in a muffled voice.
That was actually reasonable.
The village hospital was never not busy. And because Sunagakure was especially skilled in the use of poisons, the Medical Corps was even busier—whether it was researching new toxins or treating the unlucky ones who accidentally knocked themselves out, it was all extra work.
"Mm... Huh? Where's Pakura-chan?"
After sufficiently replenishing her "Kōri element," Karura finally noticed that someone seemed to be missing from the bedding.
"Pakura woke up much earlier than you, you stamina weakling. She should be out getting the morning newspaper."
Bound by the curse of "sleeplessness," Hii Kōri had taken a shower after their nighttime battle and gone to the study to continue his research. He only returned to the bedroom when he calculated that dawn was approaching.
The so-called morning newspaper was something he had developed over these past few years.
It concisely informed ordinary villagers about what had been happening in the ninja world recently and what their village had been doing—very suitable for internal propaganda. Placing ads in the newspaper was also another means of stimulating consumption.
After all, money only had value when it circulated.
Hii Kōri occasionally published miscellaneous musings in it as well, advertising for his workshop.
It was worth mentioning that Sakaki Tatsuma had come straight to work at his workshop after graduation. Although he couldn't quite cut it as a ninja, Ahaha-kun was Genuinely talented in finance and trade.
Thanks to him, Hii Kōri was making a killing—to the point where he could even subsidize Sunagakure's finances. Leaving aside the mass-produced puppets, ninja tools, custom services, storage scrolls, various teaching materials, and new technology exhibitions for internal use, the tin toys, ninja dolls, and ninja card blind boxes he exported were selling like crazy.
After developing the core technology of "Permanent Magnet Drive" based on extensions of Magnet Release and creating semi-autonomous puppets, Hii Kōri's productivity—and indeed Sunagakure's as a whole—had increased exponentially.
Of course, limited by the output of permanent magnet cores from the Third Kazekage (Vegeta) and Bunpuku, the number of these semi-autonomous puppets wasn't large. Depending on the type of puppet, they could only produce somewhere from a few to about a dozen per month.
Moreover, these puppets' capabilities weren't sufficient for particularly complex work, and using them in combat was even less feasible.
But what it meant for technological development to have productivity liberated to a certain extent—well, anyone who "aspired to be a master farmer" would surely understand.
Take it slow, take it slow. Resources couldn't be conjured out of thin air; they had to snowball gradually.
Of course, foreign trade was handled through layers of shell companies. The round-trip security for transporting goods was evenly distributed among several major hidden villages, with the specific assignment depending on the destination.
It wasn't that they expected to gather intelligence through these means; the main goal was to obscure the connection to Sunagakure—whether concerning other villages or the Daimyō of the Country of Wind.
"Starting your own trade, having resource circulation channels, making money, even having labor—what you plan to do next, I dare not even imagine.jpg"
"What, is Sunagakure planning a rebellion?.jpg"
Therefore, very few people within Sunagakure itself even knew about this trading company and assembly line.
In short, with money and productivity now available, many of Hii Kōri's concepts could be put into practice. His workshop on the outskirts of Sunagakure, beyond the three floors above ground used for living, entertaining guests, and displaying results, extended five levels of enormous space underground.
A research institute, proving grounds, an assembly plant, a hangar for large puppets, and a library that shared the upper four levels with the previous four and could be moved via sliding rails or stairs.
Elevators were out of the question—just the wiring for lighting and energy consumption already gave Hii Kōri headaches; adding elevators would be even more troublesome.
After all, he might expand this place again at any time. Now that his bibliophilia had been aroused, he probably wouldn't be satisfied so easily.
Novels, comics, travel guides, cookbooks, educational materials for specialized knowledge... he collected all types of books indiscriminately, and if there was anything related to ninjutsu or mythology, all the better.
Before he knew it, he was deep in reading.
As for how he, Karura, and Pakura had ended up in this situation...
That was probably due to an accident.
Because of the birth of his nephew "Sasori," Hii Kōri's psychological state had undergone a certain degree of change. Simply put, he became gentler and more considerate, very adapted to family life.
This change further made Karura feel the possibility of securing Hii Kōri.
During this period, Miss Pakura happened to develop her kekkei genkai—Scorch Release.
Karura had long been subtly and openly reminded by Chiyo to use a woman with excellent bloodlines to continue Hii Kōri's Uzumaki lineage within Sunagakure. Therefore, she had thoroughly prepared for this, hoping to seize the championship throne by virtue of her family's excellent chakra control abilities.
Then Pakura smashed all her plans with a single fireball.
Yes, that's right! A kekkei genkai—what better bloodline could there be than that?
Fun fact: rabbits really hate being lonely.
So, self-abandoning little rabbit dug out the strong liquor her family had hidden, got completely drunk, and ran to the workshop's training ground to wail like a loser.
At that moment, Pakura was showing Hii Kōri her kekkei genkai.
To Karura's tearful emotional outpouring, Hii Kōri's response was, "You've come at just the right time."
Obviously—with the atmosphere having reached that point, how could he possibly choose just one? Besides, since they wanted to continue the bloodline, of course the more the better. On this point, Sunagakure's higher-ups couldn't agree more.
Trivia: rabbits actually have tempers fiercer than many common animals.
So, bolstered by the courage alcohol gives the timid, the little rabbit challenged the great demon king.
And then...
***
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