Uchiha Mu had been absurdly busy lately.
He had dumped both finance and intelligence work onto Hyuga Ryono.
With the Byakugan, she was practically born to be a sensor.
The job suited her perfectly.
Mu and his shadow clones, meanwhile, were working so hard they barely had time to breathe.
He desperately needed more capable people.
At present, the country had very few people he could truly use.
Even the foreman at one of his construction sites had been chosen simply because he was the tallest dwarf in the room.
Money was another concern.
He had gathered a fortune from the nobles of several great nations, but that trick couldn’t be repeated forever.
While he still had capital, he needed to use new businesses to win over a group of nobles and Daimyo.
Only then could his country establish stable relationships with the outside world.
If the other countries truly sealed his borders in the future, developing this mediocre territory enough to upgrade the system would become enormously difficult.
Still, the joy of nation-building was addictive.
Ninjutsu accelerated everything to a ridiculous degree.
Who would believe that a city of this size had been built in less than a month?
Ryono was suffering under an equally brutal workload.
Her Byakugan had no blind spots, which made her perfect for counterintelligence.
Any enemy spy who entered its range had nowhere to hide.
Mu handled the actual arrests personally.
The strength of most other ninja in the country was…
well, everyone understood.
He needed to ensure the fighting didn’t cause major damage.
This was simply another part of the aftermath of the war.
At this point, Mu urgently wanted the Uzumaki Clan’s barrier techniques.
Otherwise, the two of them were going to collapse from exhaustion.
Fortunately, Mu’s chakra reserves were enormous.
Between Hashirama’s cells and the system reward, they had already reached a level comparable to Senju Hashirama himself.
Most infiltrators couldn’t even defeat one of Mu’s shadow clones, so the country had remained relatively safe.
Once this wave of spying passed, they could finally enter a peaceful development period.
“Mu, there’s a ninja with a large chakra reserve at the village entrance.”
Ryono relayed the information through one of Mu’s clones.
“Probably Kakuzu.
I’ll go take a look.”
Mu felt like a corporate slave.
This was the downside of founding a village—no, a country—at this point in history.
The large and medium ninja clans had already been absorbed by the great nations.
Only small-time people were willing to join the Nation of a Hundred Clans.
Mu had already settled on his next three major objectives.
First, recruit the Seven-Tails living in the former Land of Waterfalls.
Second, trade the Rasengan to the Uzumaki Clan for barrier and sealing techniques.
Third, visit the Land of Water and bring back some more bloodlines.
That would be the next development trilogy.
Once the spy crisis ended, the country should have several years of relative peace.
When Mu reached the entrance, Kakuzu looked very different from the man he had met before.
Yet somehow, he now resembled the Kakuzu Mu remembered from the original story much more closely.
His entire expression had gone cold.
Clearly, he had not recovered from the betrayal.
“Uchiha Mu, I came here because I want to ask you something,” Kakuzu said first.
Mu looked at him.
“You think the ninja world is fake.
You gave your village your sincerity and loyalty, and they repaid you by betraying you.
Now you’re wondering whether anything in this world is real at all.”
Kakuzu’s eyes widened.
‘How does he understand me this well?’
That was exactly why he had come.
He wanted an answer.
Unlike the original timeline, Kakuzu had been betrayed after returning home this time.
Part of the reason was probably Mu’s public invitation on the battlefield.
“The stronger you become, the more insecure weak leaders become,” Mu continued.
“Those people were the highest authorities in your village.
The stronger you became, the more afraid they were that you would use force to replace them.”
Mu smiled and extended his hand.
“Things are different here.
I’m already the strongest person in the country.
You only need to use your abilities.
Nobody has to fear that you’ll overthrow me.”
Kakuzu looked at him with complicated eyes.
“Uchiha Mu…
you’re very different from the Uchiha I’ve heard about.”
Originally, Kakuzu had planned to speak with Mu, receive his answer, and leave.
He didn’t believe Mu would kill him simply because he refused an invitation.
A man’s reaction to rejection revealed the size of his heart, and Kakuzu didn’t think Mu was that petty.
“Then I’ll invite you again.”
Mu kept his hand extended.
“Want to join my country?
This is a place where you can use all your talent.
No matter how excellent you become, nobody will push you away or distrust you for it.”
He paused.
“And even if something happens to me one day, there will always be money.
Money doesn’t lie, does it?”
Kakuzu’s eyes brightened at the last sentence.
Money.
That was true.
Ordinary people, nobles, Daimyo, ninja—everyone acted for money.
Why did ninja complete missions?
Because they were paid afterward.
Money would never betray him.
Without realizing it, Mu had personally pointed Kakuzu toward enlightenment.
“Alright.”
Kakuzu reached out and shook his hand.
“Welcome.
Finally, someone who can take some of this workload off me.
First, I’ll teach you the Shadow Clone Technique.”
Mu activated his three-tomoe Sharingan.
In an instant, Kakuzu fell into genjutsu.
A short while later, he returned to normal with a complicated expression.
Then he formed a shadow clone.
The technique was extremely useful.
As one of the strongest ninja from a small village, Kakuzu had enough experience to recognize that immediately.
Mu patted him on the shoulder.
“That secret technique of yours is pretty good too.
With it, you might actually live long enough to see where this country ends up.”
Then he added, “I’d also like to see whether your technique can be applied to medicine.
I’ve started making progress in medical ninjutsu.”
Mu hadn’t originally possessed Yang Release.
After transplanting Hashirama’s cells, he did.
Combined with the Sharingan’s fine chakra control, he believed that with enough study, techniques like the Mystical Palm Technique were well within reach.
Kakuzu suddenly asked, almost on instinct,
“Does that pay?”
“Of course it pays.
Don’t worry.
I even pay the ninja who attacked us before.”
Mu laughed.
“Come on.
I’ll show you around the village.”
Although Mu called this place a country, in practical terms it still looked more like a settlement on Konoha’s scale.
Even Mu felt a little embarrassed calling the current version a full nation.
Kakuzu looked around.
“Where is everyone?”
“Adding bricks and tiles to the country.
I’ll show you.”
Mu took him toward a construction site.
Quite a few foreign spies were serving labor sentences there.
What else could Mu do?
He was desperately short on manpower.
If his system had awakened at the same time as Hashirama’s—or before the great villages were founded—he never would have been reduced to this.
His country was developing quickly, but the problems were equally obvious.
Kakuzu surveyed the worksite.
“They’re building roads, houses, and waterways?”
“Exactly.
The former Land of Waterfalls has abundant water, but Frost doesn’t.
I’ve also diverted some water from the Land of Fire.
What you see now is only the basic framework, but give it a few years and it’ll be impressive.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Kakuzu felt that his secret technique would be ideal for this sort of labor.
Each heart corresponded to a different chakra nature.
He could practically hold several jobs at once by himself.
“You’re going to make money for me.
I’ll provide the ideas.”
Mu held up his first product.
“This is a refrigerator.”
“A refrigerator?
What does it do?”
“Preserves food.
It can also freeze water.
When summer comes, who wouldn’t want an ice-cold drink?”
Kakuzu’s eyes sharpened.
“What powers it?”
“Electricity.”
“Lightning Release?”
In the original era, electricity had become common.
Right now, however, the world was only just transitioning from the Warring States Period into the village era.
Widespread electrical infrastructure was still some time away.
Fortunately, introducing it here was much easier than inventing it from nothing in Mu’s previous life.
Ninja could literally produce lightning from chakra.
So Mu had quickly created a functional electrical system.
Wind power.
Hydropower.
He was putting everything to use.
There was even a prison-labor Lightning Release power station.
Peak efficiency.
As for appliances, Mu’s clones had spent countless failed attempts substituting available materials until they finally produced working versions.