With the returning ninja lending a hand, repairs to the Clan grounds progressed greatly and were completed in just a few days.
One day, Kosuke was sorting through documents when the old craftsman from before stood respectfully outside the doorway.
"Lord Kosuke," the craftsman said with a slight bow, cautious expectation in his eyes. "This old man came today to ask whether I might make a set for my own home based on the square table and Eight Immortals Table in your residence?"
Kosuke glanced up at him without giving it much thought, then said bluntly, "Sure. But... are you only planning to make one set for your own home, or turn it into a business?"
"Huh?" The craftsman, Uchiha Shita, abruptly raised his head and stared at Kosuke in disbelief. He had thought a great ninja like him would look down on trade. "Captain Kosuke, to be honest, my family runs a small furniture business... It's just..."
"Oh? Then that's perfect." Kosuke's lips curled slightly. "How about this? I'll provide the designs, and you'll handle production and sales. I take forty percent of the profits, and you take sixty. How does that sound?"
"H-How could that possibly be proper?" Shita was both excited and terrified, waving his hands repeatedly. "Captain Kosuke, that won't do."
"It won't?" Kosuke raised a brow. "Then forget it. I'll find someone else. Your family can just make a set for yourselves if you need one."
"No, Captain Kosuke!" Shita hurriedly waved his hands, all traces of his earlier timid manner vanishing. "Your willingness to cooperate is already an enormous blessing! As for the split... this humble one would never dare take sixty percent! You should take seventy, and I take thirty. That would be reasonable!"
"I take seventy and you take thirty?"
"Yes, Captain Kosuke's reputation has been greatly respected throughout the clan because of what happened before." He rubbed his hands together and chuckled. "With you backing us, this business will be as steady as a mountain! You deserve every bit of that profit!"
Seeing Shita rubbing his hands together, Kosuke felt a small thrill rise within him.
He had never expected that, in this era of war, he would somehow end up becoming a "capitalist."
Then Kosuke gave a soft laugh. "Let me make this clear first. I, Uchiha Kosuke, will back your family's business, but there's one condition—you must listen to me."
"Please explain, Captain Kosuke. This old man will obey every word!" Shita nodded rapidly, his rough hands scratching against his scalp with a rasping sound.
"You agreed that quickly? Aren't you afraid I'll use this to swindle your family?"
Faced with Kosuke's teasing, Shita's expression did not change as he continued smiling at him, the reverence in his eyes already impossible to conceal.
"All right." Kosuke's smile faded. "As long as you do this: sell to clan members at cost. As for outsiders..." A cold smile suddenly appeared on his lips. "Sell it at a high price!"
"If you find anyone else making imitations and selling them," Kosuke said, his gaze turning sharp in an instant, "secretly record their family or faction on a scroll. Later, I'll personally pay them a 'visit' according to that list. Uchiha property isn't so easy to lay hands on!"
"Rest assured! This humble one understands!" Shita grinned and chuckled.
"This humble one will return at once and ask the clan to prepare the contract. I'll deliver it to your residence first thing tomorrow morning!"
The next day, Shita knocked on Kosuke's door again.
He clutched the still-wet contract excitedly in his hands. Behind him stood an honest-looking, wooden young man—his eldest son, Uchiha Jūchū.
"Shita?"
Kosuke raised a brow at the name on the contract, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He checked again to make sure he had not misread it, but the signed name on the contract had not changed in the slightest.
"That is indeed this old man. This is my eldest son—Uchiha Jūchū. He has studied carpentry under this humble one for three years and can now stand on his own."
When Jūchū heard the introduction, he hurriedly bowed. His stiff manner made his father, Shita, anxious.
Uh...
Does your family happen to have a grandson named Uchiha Tree Up?
Kosuke waved his hand, signed his name on the contract, then took out the family seal his mother had given him the previous night and stamped it directly onto the page.
"All right. There are three copies of the contract. One goes to the clan, and you and I each keep one." He handed the contract to Shita. "Come find me again after you finish working on the Academy's construction. I have several furniture designs to give you as well."
On the way back, Shita's hands trembled so badly with excitement that he could barely hold the contract.
A familiar craftsman kept whistling at him. "Yo, Shita! What girl has taken a liking to an old carpenter like you? Look at how happy you are!"
"Get lost!" Shita glared at him, but he could not hide the smile at the corner of his mouth.
I've got the greatest good fortune today. Why would I tell a miserable bastard like you?
Dream on!
He suddenly grabbed Jūchū and pulled him around the street corner. Fine wood shavings fluttered from his burlap apron behind him, like golden dust scattered all along the road.
A year later, at the age of six, Kosuke had just reached the age to begin refining Chakra and could not wait to try the new Chakra refinement method.
After discussing it with his mother for a long time, Aoba finally agreed.
Under his mother Aoba's worried yet expectant gaze, Kosuke sat cross-legged in his bedroom and began refining Chakra according to the new method.
The instant he refined Chakra, Kosuke felt as though he had been plunged into an ocean of Chakra—vast and dense...
He opened his eyes and circulated the Chakra within his body. A faint blue glow shimmered at his fingertips.
"Mom! It worked!"
Aoba immediately placed a hand on his shoulder, sending Chakra into his body through her palm.
A moment later, as she sensed that her child possessed more Chakra than even a Chūnin, surprise and disbelief filled Aoba's beautiful eyes. "This refinement method..."
"Kosuke, does this mean the new Chakra refinement method has no problems at all? Can every clan member refine Chakra according to it?"
"Mom, we can't say the new Chakra refinement method has absolutely no problems. We still don't know whether it is dangerous for people who already have Chakra to refine it anew. But for clan members refining Chakra for the first time, there's absolutely no problem."
"Clan members refining for the first time..."
Aoba paused slightly. After a moment of silence, she nodded gently, then lifted her burning gaze to Kosuke again, a trace of excitement in her voice. "Should we notify Madara immediately and tell the clan about this?"
"We can."
Kosuke nodded slightly, recalling that Madara would be coming to his home that afternoon. "I'll tell Madara about it this afternoon."
"Good."
It looked like they could have the prisoners Madara had brought back earlier practice the new Chakra refinement method. Hopefully, everything would go smoothly.
Aoba gazed at her son's profile and suddenly noticed that the shadow beneath his lashes had already taken on some of the Uchiha's distinctive sharpness.
Midday.
Eleven-year-old Madara arrived punctually at Kosuke's door with nine-year-old Izuna.
Ding~ Ding~ Ding~ Ding~
Mina flew toward the still-ringing door like a swallow.
As the door opened.
Madara, wearing his usual cold expression with his arms crossed, and the excited Izuna slowly appeared beneath the doorway.
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