The Warring States Period was one where the many different states would hire the various ninja clans to fight for them over territory, over food stuffs, over basic concerns such as crops and the like. Constantly fighting to gain territory, to defend territory, and to deny their enemies resources. The conflict itself being on such a scale that it covered most of the continent. Thousands died on a constant basis, their lives sold and bought by the bickering Daimyos, lords of the various nations, of the factions, of even little villages if it was powerful enough.
It was into this maelstrom that a family in a village gave birth to triplets. Something that was undoubtedly a curiosity for the family this being their first attempt at raising children and to give birth to such an interesting combination… well, things weren't exactly normal. What with twins being exceedingly rare when it came down to it, triplets even more so.
In fact, there hadn't been any in the village since its inception. The people of the village being simple farmers, unable to recall a history beyond that of the oral history told by the village elders. An elder that said very clearly that there had been no twins let alone triplets since the village's birth and that this was a good omen for the village. They celebrated briefly before going back to work on the communal farms, the war raged on and it didn't affect them, nobody was stupid enough to destroy the Rice crops.
No, the War was being fought by the armies on the fields that didn't matter. Anyone who tried to kill farmers was generally in turn, killed themselves, brutally. Without the farmers, who was going to feed the armies? Who was going to feed the populace? Who was going to do anything at all?
Foolish is what it was and only Bandits would be desperate enough to do so. Only the various Daimyos had soldiers stationed at each village to ensure the occasional Bandit raid was beaten off… brutally. They would be made examples of as was right, the farms were needed and they would be damned, quite literally, if they did not keep their little farmers alive.
After all, without a farm to produce food, what were their soldiers meant to eat? Their shinobi? Their own people?
And so it was for the people of the village this was just a blip on the radar, a little bump on their road to farm more Rice for their taxes. Who they would be paying to would be marked by the guards of the village, whatever colours they wore was who the payments were going to. Simple really, the guards occasionally changed as the old ones were killed or replaced by other clans/territories/etc.
They did not truly care, since they paid their taxes (and resented that) regardless of who it was to. A very simple tax actually, one that in a set amount of their grain as opposed to a ratio like other villages. It created a rather high level of incentive to farm more rice, and they were growing wealthy indeed from it. Selling their excess crops to make a little money on the side, set aside for future troubles that might need it, a famine perhaps.
But that was neither here nor there.
Unfortunately for the village… and perhaps the world, the triplets were the first harbingers of the Caretakers into the world.
The Caretakers had taken an interest and things were going to be… interesting to say the least.
The idea that there were ninjas who used magic and stuff was generally just… fun. When it came down to it.
The problem came down to choosing who to ally with, the water people, the leaf people, the sandy people, the misty people, the rocky people, they were all just… people when it came down to it.
There were pros and there were cons. Pros over here, cons over there.
Each of them was interesting in their own way, however… wouldn't it be better if they were able to create their own village and then be able to interact with all of them for the most enjoyable of experiences? It was genius now that they thought about it.
Rather than have just one village for them to play around in, creating one that would allow for them to interact with all the other nations, then have their own hidden villages for all the ninja stuff as well. They could always go and subvert some villagers if they really want to get some other contextual actions while they were at it.
The hows, were going to need to be worked on however, it wasn't a good idea to have something like a new village come out of nowhere. That generally sparked fears and in turn made people do stupid things like try and pick a fight with them with guns and stuff. Except ninjas weren't using guns so that was something that was a concern, they would need to fight like Hannah and that was just weird.
The point still stood however, the Caretakers were going to need something that would allow them to grow as a nation and become supremely powerful as they did so, in such a way that others would be hesitant to attack them and in a way that kept them largely immune to whatever was going on outside in the world itself. The world was not a nice place after all. Yet they
Also wished to not be scary, they did not want to make everyone afraid to interact with them at all, that would defeat the point of having their own nation.
Concerns that needed to be addressed at some point. For now, however, the triplets were simply… alive.
They would be joined in the coming years by more triplets from more families, growing the village in number and as they matured, in power.
It would be accomplished through a very simple objective when it came down to it, to simply grow the land they were on. The more land there was, the more powerful a nation would be, the more resources they had under their control would define their wealth and power after all.
As for what they would be doing with that much land, with that wealth, what they were doing at all… well, that was to be debated. The ninja wars could wait, for the time being, the families were still growing and the rice needed planting.
Years had passed and… well… nothing much had happened. Just… more rice. Absurd amounts of rice.
The village had expanded and with so many helping hands, the village had grown dramatically in size. The number of villagers had grown from the number of triplets that had been born into it. Every generation producing triplets, every generation producing more and more children, children that were all producing more triplets with either each other or with villagers that were migrating to the village.
The village that was now a small town, one that was expanding its boundaries more and more as time passed. The fact that it was producing rice was important, yes, but the fact that the triplets had innate Chakra and were using it in such a way that it made them… ninjas… well, they were defending the village and had pushed out the previous lords, Daimyos, and mercenaries that had laid claim to the town previously.
The Daimyos weren't able to do what it was that they were trying to do in the first place. That was securing a stable food source in which to protect their own positions. A hungry people was a people that looked for the opportunity to affect change, change that usually was carried out in a particularly… violent and final manner.
The constant fighting over the town and its rice fields had reached such a point that the might of the factions had to be deployed in force to bring the town under their control. They sent out their own forces, forces that were then beaten off by the town's defenders, all of them using what appeared to be a specific series of techniques that was unknown by any of the ninja advisors that they had called in for analysis.
While this was happening as if to add insult to injury, the town as only growing ever larger, taking more land, incorporating the surrounding villages into their system and bringing their peoples into the fold.
The town which by now numbered in the tens of thousands was growing into a power that couldn't be ignored any longer.
But the idea of attacking what looked to be a large clan that was entrenched in a single area was an idea that took serious consideration. To do so would be to invite a large number of casualties, would incur very high costs and the threat that they would burn their own crops to deny them anything… the costs were far too high and other considerations had been taken.
They had ignored the town for far too long and this was their punishment it looked like. The food was out of their reach and instead of being able to retrieve it from the inhabitants for free, they were being forced to do so with money or trade. But… it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Actually, it was in hindsight a rather good thing that the town had been made independent as it had. The fact of the matter was that the town was a source of food as it had been in the past, true. But what was happening now was far beyond that, they had with the numbers they had available to them, developed new and improved techniques by which to farm their rice with their Chakra which in turn meant that whereas before a single field would yield 1 rice, it would now yield 10.
In short, the stability of the town allowed for them to begin growing crops on such a scale that it outclassed anything that had been demonstrated previously. The town as such being able to have an extreme surplus with which they would then sell to the various nations and factions in the surrounding area. This in turn, allowed for the surrounding areas to become much more secure in their stability and their ability to defend themselves.
The fact that they were able to get such large amounts of rice and for cheap, freed up the peasants who were then able to join the various militaries, further strengthening the positions of the factions around them.
The factions that no longer needed to bicker and fight over the area that the town resided in, free to turn their attention and their men elsewhere.
The now named Rice Town was growing in significance and they were spreading themselves throughout the region politically with their shipments of rice defended by their own ninja in the form of the now infamous triplets.
Good things did not last forever and they certainly knew that. The monopoly on rice would only last as long as there was conflict in the area and the citizens of Rice Town were working in a manner in which they would be able to maintain and to create a hegemony that would see them safe and protected in the future.
The idea therefore, was to begin growing other crops, crops that could only be grown under specific conditions that were able to be created by the various powers of the Rice Town ninjas and their unique nature Chakra. Growing various foodstuffs that would in turn, become staples such as wheat, corn and the like. Growing them together and selling them outside of their region, to the various factions beyond even that.
Creating for themselves a network that spread out far and wide. One that grew the Rice Town into a city, and then a nation of its own. Incorporating over time the surrounding region under one banner. It would have happened regardless, the Rice Town was far too influential with the people, synonymous to them with food and prosperity. Without the Rice town, they reasoned, correctly in many cases, that they would be starving, their own foodstuffs being requisitioned by the military and the government officials for their own men. Therefore the town itself was able to effectively depose of the rulers in a raid that took them all by surprise, stabbing them in the back, assuming full control.
It was into the settling of the nations as they were known that the Rice Nation was founded and established. Cementing themselves on the continental stage.
A faction of neutrality, one that would defend itself, but also looked to make a profit.
To the North of the Land of Fire, spreading to the Seas to the North. They were a moderately sized nation and as the nations themselves were finalized and consolidated, the Rice Nation finalized their own borders, establishing themselves and growing in power.