After personally testing the refrigerator, Kakuzu immediately decided that it could make a fortune.
The Land of Wind in particular would be a massive market.
And even in other countries, summers could become unbearable.
There was enormous demand waiting to be exploited.
Electricity itself was also something novel enough to charge installation fees for.
Kakuzu had no plans to sell electricity directly to ninja villages, though.
What village didn’t have at least a few Lightning Release users?
The Daimyo and nobles were a different story.
Kakuzu almost instinctively developed an entirely separate sales strategy for them.
First, however, he needed Mu to provide more electrical products.
If they had enough useful appliances, perhaps they could get nobles to personally pay for the electrical infrastructure of entire towns.
So Kakuzu quickly returned to Mu.
Mu happily handed over another product.
A washing machine.
“Go get us a good price.”
With two attractive products in hand, Kakuzu disguised himself and immediately headed for the capital of the Land of Fire.
Konoha was the strongest ninja village, and the Land of Fire was the wealthiest nation.
If something became fashionable there, the other countries and villages would hear about it almost immediately.
That was the fastest way to build a reputation.
Mu didn’t care about patents or anything like that.
This was a world where strength determined ownership.
Why waste time worrying about intellectual-property law?
As long as he could sell his products early and sell them at absurd prices, that was good enough.
After the previous round of counterintelligence, the other villages had finally stopped sending more spies.
Training a competent spy required both time and money.
Nobody could afford to feed them into Mu’s country forever.
Only then did Mu finally have time to breathe.
Ryono had already collapsed from exhaustion.
Fortunately, the Byakugan wasn’t the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Using it constantly wouldn’t make her go blind.
“Mu…
turns out that war was just the appetizer.”
Ryono lay sprawled across the bed without any desire to move.
“This was the real war.”
“That’s what happens when you leave home and build your own village,” Mu said from a chair.
“There are too many things to manage.”
Ryono was exhausted.
Mu was even worse.
He had almost nobody under him.
Even recruiting Kakuzu had taken a ridiculous amount of effort.
So Mu used shadow clones at high intensity every day.
Ryono turned her head toward him.
“Mu, what do you actually want this place to become?
Bigger than Konoha?”
“Ryono, we aren’t even in the same category as them.”
Mu corrected her immediately.
“We’re a country.
They’re a village.”
Strictly speaking, what they had built so far was still basically a large village.
But the mindset needed to be corrected from the beginning.
“Right.
Then…
bigger than the Five Great Nations?”
“Exactly.”
Mu nodded.
There was one part he didn’t say out loud.
If the system could still be upgraded by that point, then he would simply swallow the Five Great Nations too.
Ryono smiled proudly.
“Mu, you’re even more unusual than I imagined.
As expected of the man I chose.”
“Heh.
Says the woman who shamelessly chased after me.”
Mu rolled his eyes.
If he was being truthful, though, it felt pretty good.
The Hyuga Clan was absurdly strict.
Yet every time Ryono had an opportunity to leave the compound, she came to see him.
And when she heard he was leaving Konoha, she followed without hesitation.
That kind of devotion was difficult not to enjoy.
“Then you should’ve rejected me.”
Ryono giggled, got off the bed, and threw herself at him.
Mu caught her.
“We still have far too few high-level combatants in the country,” he said.
“Kakuzu sent me information.
There’s something in the forests of the former Land of Waterfalls with an enormous chakra reserve.”
Ryono swallowed.
“What is it?
A summoning beast?”
“Sort of.”
Mu smiled.
“It’s more accurate to call it a tailed beast.
Perfect timing, actually.
We can bring it home as a pet.
Want to come?”
“But what about the village?”
“It’ll be fine.
Spies aren’t sold wholesale.
And my clones are still here.”
Mu knew that after the recent purge, another wave of infiltration on this scale wouldn’t happen for years.
Competent spies were expensive.
Ryono stared at him.
“Exactly how much chakra do you have now?”
Before leaving Konoha, Mu had possessed large but still believable reserves.
After arriving here, Ryono had only seen one other person with chakra on this scale.
The Hokage.
“A lot.
Come on.”
Mu scooped her up around the waist and headed at high speed toward the location Kakuzu had reported.
Tailed beasts were treated as natural disasters by ninja of this era.
Their chakra reserves were enormous, their destructive power was frightening, and their bodies were incredibly difficult to injure.
Normal ninja simply couldn’t deal with them.
The Seven-Tails could already fly, but forests remained its favorite environment.
There was plenty of terrain it liked, and humans rarely ventured close.
That day began like any other.
The Seven-Tails moved through its territory on patrol.
Unlike the Nine-Tails, it didn’t possess terrifying chakra reserves and equally ridiculous sensory abilities.
So it only noticed the approaching humans once Mu was relatively close.
“Seven-Tails, become my companion.”
Mu extended a hand.
“Are you insane?
Get lost, human!”
The Seven-Tails immediately took to the air, preparing a large-scale attack.
“Can’t be helped.”
Mu sighed.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m an Uchiha.”
His eyes transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan.
One eye amplified ninjutsu.
The other amplified genjutsu.
With Hashirama’s cells supporting him, a single glance was enough to drop the Seven-Tails into an illusion.
“The Uchiha Clan really is ridiculous.
Much stronger than my Hyuga.”
Ryono stood beside Mu and watched the enormous creature crash to the ground.
Through her Byakugan, she could see just how vast its chakra reserves were.
If she faced this creature alone, her legs would probably tremble.
Mu had one-shotted it with a glance.
“Tailed beasts are very powerful,” Mu said.
“The Uchiha aren’t exactly weak either.”
Then he remembered how Madara and Hashirama treated the Nine-Tails.
Well.
Power was relative.
Mu approached the Seven-Tails and released the genjutsu.
“So?
Seven-Tails, have you thought it over?”
“Get—”
Before it could finish, it fell into genjutsu again.
After this happened twice, the Seven-Tails finally behaved itself.
The man in front of it was a descendant of Indra.
And an extremely powerful one.
Continuing to resist was pointless.
“Seven-Tails, I’ll ask one more time.
Have you decided?”
Mu smiled.
“Because I don’t mind controlling you with genjutsu forever.”
The Seven-Tails went silent for a moment.
“What do you need me to do?”
“My country doesn’t have enough powerful defenders yet, so I need your strength.”
Mu held out a fist.
“And I’d like some of your chakra.”
“Understood.”
The Seven-Tails bumped fists with him and transferred some of its chakra.
Mu was extremely satisfied.
He had no intention of sealing the Seven-Tails into a jinchuriki.
A jinchuriki might be stronger in direct combat, but for this era, the tailed beast itself was already more than enough.
Mu jumped onto the shell near the Seven-Tails’ shoulder and motioned for Ryono to follow.
Then he pointed it toward the village.
The beast took off at high speed.
“Seven-Tails, sign a summoning contract with me.”
“No.”
The rejection came instantly.
Absolutely not.
It refused to become anyone’s dog.
Mu leaned closer and lowered his voice.
“I know what eventually happens to you tailed beasts.
You can’t avoid facing that empty shell forever.
With me around, I can at least protect you.”
The Seven-Tails stiffened.
“Who are you?
How do you know about that?”
It wasn’t stupid.
It knew exactly what Mu meant.
“I’m Uchiha Mu.”
Mu continued whispering like a devil at its ear.
“Do you really think I’m the only person who knows?
What makes you think nobody else will try to use all of you?”
The Seven-Tails fell into deep hesitation.
If Uchiha Mu knew, then perhaps others did too.
But agreeing to Mu’s contract still felt suspiciously like walking into a wolf’s den.