A year passed after Uchiha Mu’s system upgrade.
There had been no large-scale war in the shinobi world, but minor conflicts continued constantly.
Meanwhile, the Hundred Clans Commerce Association established by Kakuzu had become famous across the entire world.
It sold all kinds of strange electrical products as well as military rations pills in a variety of flavors.
The business siphoned enormous amounts of money out of the great nations.
Naturally, Kakuzu couldn’t monopolize everything himself.
If you refused to share benefits, the road ahead filled with obstacles.
But once nobles and the Daimyo of the various great nations were invited onto the same wagon, the Hundred Clans Commerce Association could travel practically anywhere without trouble.
And if ordinary ninja tried robbing the caravans, Kakuzu’s strength was nothing to laugh at.
People could joke all they wanted about the man who once threw a shuriken at the Hokage, but he was still genuinely powerful.
Konoha became the second faction to adapt.
Mu could only say that the evil old Senju bastard really lived up to his reputation.
Tobirama had dragged Konoha’s collection of major clans onto a new economic track and forcibly carved out a portion of the market for themselves.
Unfortunately for them, Konoha’s businesses still struggled to expand beyond the Land of Fire.
Even inside the Land of Fire, they encountered resistance.
Konoha was an alliance of ninja clans.
Their products and production costs gave them natural advantages.
If those clans seriously entered ordinary commerce, they could earn frightening amounts of money.
The problem was that unlike Uchiha Mu, they weren’t willing to voluntarily surrender enough profit to the existing noble class.
The nobles were already watching them carefully.
In their eyes, ninja were supposed to remain tools and weapons.
Business belonged to nobles.
Why were ninja sticking their hands into it?
As long as Hashirama lived, the situation remained manageable.
Once Hashirama died, however, those same nobles would happily push from behind the other villages and encourage conflict.
Even without Black Zetsu or Madara manipulating events, the shinobi world would eventually erupt into war.
It was only a matter of time.
Once hatred between villages accumulated and the first generation of leaders died, the hidden villages would gradually lose interest in commerce and return to their original nature.
For the moment, Uchiha Mu had simply dragged them temporarily off their normal path.
Speaking of Mu, several nobles found him particularly troublesome.
That bastard had bound many nobles—and every Daimyo—into shared interests with his country.
Moving against him was incredibly difficult.
Give him several more years and those newly enriched nobles might become powerful enough to rival the old aristocratic factions.
Of course, there were always methods.
Internal division was often more effective than direct confrontation.
Split them apart and the alliance would collapse.
Most of the nobles simply intended to wait until Uchiha Mu died before making their move.
The stories circulating through the shinobi world about his strength were, frankly, terrifying.
As for the other four great hidden villages?
Business remained an impossible subject for most of them.
Mu himself was living much as before.
Shadow clones handled paperwork while his real body remained relatively relaxed.
Training wasn’t much of a problem either.
The system existed as his safety net.
Miniature Chomei floated nearby.
“Uchiha Mu, you have more chakra than I do now.”
It couldn’t resist complaining.
Mu laughed.
“If I’m not strong, how am I supposed to survive in this world?
The country is still in a critical development period.
I can’t afford to become the weak link.”
His territory had expanded to only somewhat larger than Konoha for the moment, so Mu had stopped trying to develop every inch of the country at once.
He would talk about nationwide modernization once the population actually existed to support it.
Keiko sighed.
“Speaking of the country, public security hasn’t been especially good recently.”
“There’s no helping that.
If we want to absorb population quickly, some problems are inevitable.
And that’s after filtering people with genjutsu.”
Mu also found the issue troublesome.
When it came to nation-building, he was essentially copying what he vaguely remembered from his previous world.
Reality produced endless complications.
Even so, he felt their development was moving remarkably quickly.
Apparently, the entire world really was one enormous amateur production held together with string.
“Mu, there’s something else.
Do we really need to manufacture so many war supplies?
Based on all our current intelligence, the great nations probably won’t fight a major war for a long time.
Senju Hashirama is still in his prime.”
Keiko now controlled both the barrier division and the finance department.
After dealing with money for so long, she’d developed a painfully sensitive instinct for unnecessary spending.
“Don’t worry.
We won’t lose money on them.
Besides, keeping those factories open gives weaker ninja—people who might never rise beyond genin—a stable income.”
“Explosive tags are one thing.
They can be stored almost indefinitely.
But military rations pills?
How many have we produced already?”
Keiko placed another file on the desk.
Managing money had taught her something unpleasant.
Every temporary department they’d established wanted funding.
If Mu hadn’t suddenly provided that batch of gold coins last year, the country would have gone bankrupt and collapsed long before any enemy village needed to attack.
“You’ve read Kakuzu’s reports too, haven’t you?
They sell extremely well in the Land of Lightning and all those smaller countries.”
“Yes, but our current inventory already exceeds their demand.
Even the Land of Whirlpools can consume only a small portion.”
Keiko rubbed her forehead.
After managing this place for so long, she’d long since begun treating it as her own country.
“Relax.
They’ll keep for quite a while.
Speaking of Kakuzu, he just sent another report.
Want to see it?”
Mu handed her a scroll.
He was honestly a little afraid of arguing too stubbornly with her.
He could ignore everyone and force through his own decisions if he wanted, but then the country would become something only he cared about developing.
Precisely because Mu didn’t cling to power, Keiko had gradually begun treating the Nation of a Hundred Clans as her own home rather than merely something belonging to Uchiha Mu.
“What kind of intelligence?”
Keiko sighed and opened the scroll with him.
Mu smiled.
“Information on the Two-Tails.
It’s in the Land of Lightning.
Kumogakure ninja were the ones who discovered it.”
Next came bringing the little cat home.
Just as with Chomei, Mu intended to make it understand reality first.
A quick taste of Uchiha genjutsu should do nicely.
“It’ll take about two days to reach the reported location from here.
When are you planning to leave?”
Keiko still possessed a certain instinctive reverence toward tailed beasts.
Chomei lived right inside their country, and its enormous chakra reserves had already shocked her.
She had never encountered the Nine-Tails.
Half of that monster had once been capable of fighting several other tailed beasts at once.
“Now.”
Mu stood and put on his robe bearing the Uchiha fan crest.
“I’m leaving the country to you.”
The Nation of a Hundred Clans had changed enormously over the past year.
One of the biggest changes involved the Uzumaki.
Mu frequently interacted with the clan and constantly paid them to take commissions inside his territory.
By now, life in the Nation of a Hundred Clans had become a common topic among Uzumaki clansmen.
Unlike Konoha, which was essentially an alliance assembled from many clans whose interaction remained relatively limited, the Nation of a Hundred Clans was easier for individual Uzumaki to enter and integrate into.
The fact that the country didn’t contain many major ninja clans didn’t concern them much.
If that was something they cared about, they would have joined Konoha from the beginning instead of creating their own village.
But everyone longed for a better life.
Ninja were no exception.
Once Uzumaki visitors experienced comfortable lives inside the Nation of a Hundred Clans, many naturally wanted to bring their relatives over too.
Return permanently to the Land of Whirlpools?
Forget it.
The Land of Whirlpools had no Daimyo and relied almost entirely on a single clan.
Its poverty was easy to imagine.
The Nation of a Hundred Clans, by contrast, did business with the Five Great Nations and countless smaller countries.
The city itself attracted large numbers of merchants.
And merchants who came here inevitably spent money while staying.
That ability to attract wealth was something the Land of Whirlpools couldn’t possibly compare with.
While the Land of Whirlpools still resembled a rural village, the Nation of a Hundred Clans had already begun developing on a modern scale.
All of it came from Mu turning product after product into mass production.
Food, clothing, housing, transportation—his industries touched every aspect of daily life.
Kakuzu’s commerce association sold those goods throughout the shinobi world.
And in peacetime, whether ninja or civilians, people with spare money were remarkably willing to spend it improving their homes and lives.