After assuming the position of leader of the Village Hidden in the Rain, the Ice-Fire Clone began to reform the village's internal affairs with bold strokes.
First, he appointed Hanzo as an advisory elder to appease the panicked hearts of the old guard.
Second, he integrated the people from the sanctuary into Amegakure, placing them in various departments where their skills could be best utilized.
Next was the matter of utmost importance: the schools. Although Amegakure had schools before, they had never been given proper attention due to financial and resource constraints, and their scale was too small. The Ice-Fire Clone pushed aside all opposition and, with a wave of his hand, decided to allocate nearly one-third of the village's financial income to the schools.
The personnel from the Finance Department were the first to raise serious objections. "Lord Kaito, this is absolutely out of the question! The war has just ended, and our lives are already strained enough. Without that money, the village's operations will face major problems!"
"No matter how poor we are, we cannot be poor in education. This is the most important lesson I learned from Konoha." The Ice-Fire Clone cut off his rebuttal. "As for the financial issues, I will find a way to solve them. In the meantime, I must ask everyone to grit their teeth and persevere."
The afterglow of the "parting the clouds" miracle was still fresh. No one dared to object further, and the policy was implemented smoothly. After merging with the Nurturing Talent School, it was reorganized into two separate institutions: one was a ninja academy specifically for children with ninja talent, and the other was a more standard school. Not only was it mandatory for all school-aged children in Amegakure to enroll, but a large number of teachers were also assigned to instruct them. Now controlling the resources of an entire village, he was no longer short of talent in this area.
The final reform was that the Ice-Fire Clone personally re-evaluated all the ninja in Amegakure, adjusting the ranks of those whose skills did not match their current standing. He also increased the welfare benefits for becoming a Jonin to stimulate the ninjas' desire to grow stronger.
During the evaluation period, the Ice-Fire Clone truly discovered a great deal of talent. The one who left the deepest impression was a young girl with the Sticky Release Kekkei Genkai. She could produce a super-adhesive, glue-like liquid to immobilize her enemies. The Ice-Fire Clone believed this Kekkei Genkai had great potential for development, so he took her under his wing and appointed her as his personal guard.
As for his secretary, he reappointed Shiori as his chief secretary, responsible for leading a secretarial team of more than ten people who would all serve him. Given the somewhat intimate interactions between Shiori and the Ice-Fire Clone, no one else dared to object.
Not counting other miscellaneous matters, these were the main internal changes the Ice-Fire Clone made after taking control of Amegakure.
In terms of foreign policy, however, the Ice-Fire Clone planned to cooperate with both the Sand Village of the Land of Wind and the Stone Village of the Land of Earth simultaneously.
"Cooperate with the Sand and the Stone? Why?" Hanzo asked, puzzled. "I thought your relationship with Konoha was better. I would have expected you to prioritize cooperating with them."
"Since I have become the leader of Amegakure, I must naturally set aside personal feelings and act in the best interests of the village," the Ice-Fire Clone replied with a smile. "Konoha is a tall tree that catches the wind; many nations are eyeing it covetously. Getting close to them now would not be a good thing. On the contrary, it would be like playing with fire."
"As for why I'm cooperating with the Sand and the Stone... of course, it's because we have a basis for cooperation."
Hanzo, hearing the clone's assessment of Konoha, nodded in strong agreement. But a new question arose. "A basis for cooperation?"
"It means we have something they want," the Ice-Fire Clone answered. "The natural environments of both the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind are extremely harsh, which is why they are the two great nations with the strongest desire for aggression. Compared to them, the Land of Thunder and the Land of Water can only be ranked behind. The nature of their desires is not on the same level."
"One is for survival, the other is for hegemony."
"Hmm, that makes sense," Hanzo nodded. "So, you plan to exploit their desperate need for fertile land? But... we can't just cede our own territory to them, can we?"
"Of course we can't sell our land. All we need to do is transport the water vapor from the Land of Rain to them."
"Transport water vapor to them? Is that even possible?" Hanzo grew even more confused.
"Heh heh, it's not difficult, but it's not simple either." The Ice-Fire Clone gave a mysterious smile. "It's just something that requires my personal touch."
"I will first write a letter to the Tsuchikage and the Kazekage to see if they are interested in this 'Great Western Development' plan."
...
"So this is the Village Hidden in the Rain? It doesn't look like much. It's not even as nice as our sanctuary!"
At the entrance to Amegakure, the tall Momoka stood on her tiptoes, her gaze peering over the heads in front of her toward the village in the distance. A year had passed, and she had grown even taller, now standing at 1.7 meters. Beside her were the serene Konan and the gently smiling Nono Yakushi. The three of them had become good friends over the past year.
When the news that the Ice-Fire Clone had become the leader of Amegakure reached the sanctuary, they received orders to pack their belongings and follow the second wave of migrants to the village. Shiori was also among them, but as she held an important position, she was needed to coordinate things on the outside and was not with Konan at the moment. The first group of personnel had already arrived in Amegakure two days prior. Most of them were construction workers, sent ahead to build additional housing.
"If all goes well, this will be our new home from now on. We should try to be more optimistic," Nono said with a smile.
"Sigh, I really can't be optimistic. I was just starting to settle down in the sanctuary, and now..." Momoka sighed.
Konan, on the other hand, felt little sadness. For her, wherever her mother and Kaito were, that was her home.
Following the flow of people, they walked into the Village Hidden in the Rain. Nono's face was calm as she silently observed the layout of the surrounding buildings, memorizing the routes—a basic skill for an intelligence operative. In truth, her heart was not so calm. Her mission was to keep an eye on Kaito, yet like everyone else, she had only learned that he had become the leader of Amegakure after the fact. This was already a major failure. She didn't know what instructions Konoha would give her now.
Later, they were temporarily settled into their pre-arranged accommodations. However, Konan and Shiori were assigned to the same house as the Ice-Fire Clone, so they had to bid farewell to Momoka and Nono. Nono and Momoka, along with the other children from the orphanage who had a talent for ninjutsu, were assigned to a large house, the two of them sharing a bedroom.
After resting for a night, they were put to work the next day, assigned to the site of the new school to help with its construction. To be able to personally build the school where they would study and live was a novel experience for these students.
It wasn't just the new school; the entire Village Hidden in the Rain had entered a state of vibrant, bustling activity.