An Understanding

"Lady Tsunade may I come in?" Knocking on the door, Shizune who was holding a scroll and two pictures in her hands, waited patiently until she heard Tsunade's voice. "Come in Shizune." Opening the door to the Hokage's Office, Shizune entered the room. Looking at the desk on the other side she shook her head as Tsunade kept stamping away at documents trying to put a dent in the hundreds of papers stacking up on her desk.

"I swear Shizune when I agreed to become Hokage I wasn't expecting this. It's like I have to sign away for every little thing that goes on." Putting her stamp down Tsunade sighed and leaned back in her chair. Hearing Tsunade's complaints Shiruzne ended up laughing. "Well it's good you became Hokage when you did. They almost ended up selecting Jiraya instead of you."

They both didn't want to imagine what kind of disaster that would turn into. "In any case what is that you came here to tell me?" It was then that Shizune presented the scroll she had carried in with her to Tsunade. Taking the scroll Tsunade looked at the mark on the front. "This is from an Outpost?" Looking up at Shizune Tsunade saw she nodded in response.

"Yes, it's an outpost near the border. They had discovered something strange and decided to immediately report it to us." Showing a look of interest Tsunade undid the rope keeping the scroll closed before reading it. As she read Shizune gave a basic overview of what it said.

"Apparently a barrier has been constructed at the border between us and the Hidden Waterfalls Village."

Continuing to read the scroll while listening to Shizune Tsunade responded. "If that's the case shouldn't we contact the Hidden Waterfalls Village and come to an agreement on how it should be dealt with?" If two different nations' borders were having to deal with an issue then normally it would require both nation's cooperation to deal with it.

"That would be the case if not for this." Shizune laid down the picture she had in her hands. "This was taken off the structure and barrier from an aerial view a week ago." An image displaying the large area Rei had had Keiki clear out along with the actual construction of the different building's he was constructing around a large building in the center.

Looking at the image Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "How was this built without our knowledge? And so quickly even utilizing Ninjutsu building something like this had to require way too much Chakra." Shizune agreed with Tsunade which is why she then placed the second picture down on the table. "And this is from two days later."

Tsunade didn't understand why a two-day difference would matter but looked at the photo and immediately she froze. "What…" In two days the entire sector surrounding the central building that was under construction was finished. "This is why it was brought to our attention as well as the Daimyos. He wants this place's construction stopped before it reaches a size too large to deal with."

Getting a scope on the issue Tsunade placed her hands on her head. 'The Akatsuki are already on the move and now we have to deal with this... ' Organizing her thoughts she looked up at Shizune. "What teams do we currently have available in the village." Listening to Tsunade Shizune quickly went through the list in her head.

"Both Team 8 and Team 10 are currently in the village." Listing two different teams Tsunade thought to herself for a moment. "Asuma and Kurenai huh… Alright, have them deploy as soon as possible. I want to know this person's intentions and their numbers. This is classified as an A-Rank mission."

Shizune nodded and then prepared to leave Tsunade's Office. "Oh and Lady Tsunade apparently the person responsible for the construction said they are an acquaintance of yours though I'm not sure what that means." Hearing that Tsunade looked up slightly. "An acquaintance huh."

Her mind thought of the multitude of different people but she couldn't narrow it down. "Thank you, Shizune." Shizune proceeded to leave carrying out Tsunade's orders. On the other hand, Rei and the others didn't know what exactly had been set in motion because of their discovery. Walking up a long set of stairs Rei along with Seiki, Fuyumi and Ren were making their way to the top of the building.

As they were walking Fuyumi, who was to Rei's right, asked a question. "So Big Brother Rei the barrier is supposed to make it so souls and spirits are able to exist here right?" Listening to Fuyumi Rei nodded saying she got the basic understanding right. "So how do the Souls decide where they go?"

Rei had actually asked this question to Ryujin Jakka himself and so he borrowed his words when he responded. "Souls will always reside in a place they can exist peacefully unless they are kept here by a grudge or desire. Once we completely activate the barrier the place Souls will go on death will be here."

Listening carefully Fuyumi seemed to understand the basic concept but it gave rise to a different question from Seiki. "Well, wouldn't that cause issues?" Fuyumi looked back at Seiki behind them and asked what he meant. "Well think about it like that ninja from earlier. If one of their family members died couldn't they just come here and meet them again?"

For a moment both Fuyumi and Ren thought about it as well and agreed. Rei was actually happy they were asking these types of questions since he asked them himself over the two years he spent with Ryujin Jakka.

"That's exactly why I have had you all train. And why we haven't made it so Souls come to this place yet. First, we not only need to make it so people can't come and go as they please and then we also need a way to manage that many people."

The Naruto world was big but its population was less so. You could say at max each great village has around One-Hundred Thousand people in them. And then adding on to that with the small towns and cities spread across the land the population would probably be in the single-digit millions.

With that being the case however it still meant thousands of people would be dying monthly and coming here. All those people would also need a force to keep the peace. And for the four of them, that was way too much work to handle. "That's a lot of people. How are we going to find enough people to help us with all of that?"

They eventually made their way to the top of the stairs where a large door was waiting for them. "Thousands of people who die will be coming here and most of them will be a ninja. Who better to manage the dead than the dead? All we need are a few people capable who can run things in the bigger picture."

That was Rei's plan anyway. Using people from those who have died would be the easiest way to manage the population. Along with that, all they needed were a group of people to manage those keeping the peace. He couldn't explain it in detail since even he didn't know how well it would go but it did mean that they had an overall idea.

"Oh… So then what are we doing up here? I don't remember ever actually coming here before." Rei simply smiled as he walked down the corridor to the set of doors. Pushing them open all three of them felt a sudden rush of Reiatsu. "What the…" The room was large and extremely big due to it having the entire upper floor to itself.

In the center of the room was a large orb made using Kido but what was causing the three of them to feel so pressured was what was inside the orb itself. It was a mix of both Reiryoku, Reiatsu, and Reishi. Walking into the room behind Rei they felt as if this entire room was sealed off. They couldn't feel anything the moment they walked inside and the doors closed behind them.

"Is this what's keeping the Barrier up?" Coming to a deduction Ren looked at the orb as he questioned Rei. "In a way yes. Over the past two years aside from training you and my own training, this is what I've been making. And it does a lot more than simply keeping the barrier up and running."

Over the past two year's Rei had not only been focusing on getting stronger but also becoming more knowledgeable when it came to the abilities of Kido. Sure it could be destructive but it also had a more practical use to it. Walking up to the orb Rei reached his hand out and placed his palm on its surface. The energy inside the orb began to swirl as if it was being manipulated.

Glancing over to the three of them Rei didn't do anything physically but before their very eyes, Reishi from the air began putting itself together. Compared to when Rei had first learned how to create objects out of Reishi it was a lot faster and tame and within seconds the three of them watched as an entire statue of the three of them was made.

Smiling as he looked at their face's Rei manipulated to the power In the orb again as the statue then deconstructed itself back into Reishi before dispersing. "You guys never wondered how I was able to build so much so quickly? Using this I can control all the Reishi inside the barrier." Still being in a state of pure shock Seiki shook his head before looking at the orb.

"I wanna try!" He looked at Rei as if begging to try but Rei shook his head. "Sorry Seiki but no. I wanted to show this to you guys so you understand. This floor has to be guarded no matter what especially when we begin accepting Souls into this place. It's also why I sealed the entire room off with Kido."

Rei wanted to make sure they understood how crucial this place was. They were still kids, all four of them but he wanted them to know that they had responsibilities waiting for them and heavy ones at that. The amount of time they could spend playing around was going to decrease by a lot.

Seeing Rei's face showing all seriousness the three of them straightened up. "We understand." Looking at them Rei softened up and sighed. "Alright, I'm going to be staying here for a while dealing with construction for the next few days. While I'm doing that I want you three to enjoy yourselves. Take a break from training and studying for a bit alright?"

Hearing Rei was giving them time off the three of them nodded before leaving. "Welp I'm going to take a nap." Walking off first Ren was the first person who knew exactly what he was going to do. "You sleep 24/7 Ren you should go exploring with me and Fuyumi. There are a bunch of caves I found nearby with some giant animals."

The three of them continued to talk as they left the room leaving Rei there on his own. 'I feel like this whole thing is going over my head…' It was a lot of responsibility and everything had to be perfect. For someone who was only fifteen Rei wasn't expecting that he would be spending his time worrying about how to run a Society of Souls.

'Hmm… That's actually not a bad name. Soul Society…'