After checking in on his subordinate Ya Midie and learning that his family was doing pretty well in Konoha, Xian Yu approved paid leave for him. He could call him back when he was needed.
His next stop was to visit his kid brother Hiruko. Before Xian Yu had left to travel, Hiruko had said he was close to overcoming the last few hurdles.
"Ugh, I really am born to toil. I got back in the middle of the night and barely slept, and now I have to get up to farm, check on how my subordinates are settling in after relocating, and inspect the research results." Xian Yu sighed.
Hiruko no longer lived in his old house. Xian Yu had later acquired a three-story building with a basement for him. Danzo had funded the whole thing.
"Holy crap! What's going on?" When Xian Yu found Hiruko, the kid was tinkering with something amid a huge pile of mechanical parts in the basement. The dark circles under his eyes were darker than a panda's, but he was in an incredibly high-spirited mood.
Hiruko seemed so engrossed in what he was doing that he hadn't even noticed Xian Yu arrive.
Seeing that, Xian Yu didn't interrupt him. He simply stood off to the side and watched.
It wasn't until two hours later that Hiruko finally finished. It was a... server?
"Xian Yu, you're here! Listen, I finally did it!" Hiruko looked overjoyed, like a kid who'd gotten a perfect score on an exam and was eager to brag to his parents and claim a reward.
But Xian Yu was a little alarmed. He was genuinely afraid Hiruko would drop dead right there. His condition was terrible! He looked like a middle schooler who'd spent a week fighting for his life at an internet café and was on the verge of dying suddenly...
"Ugh... Xian Yu, what did you just give me?" Without a word, Xian Yu had fed the severely exhausted kid, who hadn't slept in who knew how long and might not have eaten or drunk anything either, a grain of Spirit Rice.
He had now exchanged for a hundred grains of Spirit Rice, which would last him for a while.
"How's it going? You've even managed to make a server." Xian Yu was a little surprised. He ignored Hiruko's question and, seeing how much better he looked after eating the Spirit Rice, asked about the research progress.
The moment Hiruko was asked about his work, he seemed like a different person. His whole demeanor changed in an instant. "It's going pretty well. The concepts and theories you gave me have all held up in practice. I solved a few key problems, and now we can basically connect to each other. I still haven't figured out that Internet you mentioned, though. But if we set up Signal Transmitters in Konoha, we can cover the whole village. Anything farther is beyond what we can do with current technology."
"When can we get started?" Xian Yu was already very satisfied with the progress. After all, the Naruto World had no satellites. Global coverage that let people get online anytime, anywhere was still a distant dream.
Xian Yu vaguely remembered that by the time Naruto's son came along, the Naruto World had become completely urbanized. Computers and cell phones seemed to exist by then. Since they would have those things decades from now, it seemed practical to develop them early now that he knew the concepts. He just hadn't expected Hiruko to have such a talent for this. In barely half a year, he had already completed the initial plan.
This was starting from nothing! There was a world of difference between pioneers blazing a trail and later generations following it.
Hiruko said excitedly, "Xian Yu, your idea was absolutely brilliant! I'm working on it now. It'll probably take another half a month. But I've already finished the little gadgets you mentioned. You can take a few back and have people test them to see if there's anything that needs improving."
After checking on Hiruko, and fearing he'd work himself to death if he kept going without sleep, Xian Yu insisted that he get a full night's rest at least once every three days and eat at least one proper meal a day. Otherwise, he'd be kicked out of the grand plan.
Faced with that threat, Hiruko practically swore an oath before agreeing.
When he left Hiruko's lab, Xian Yu was holding something both familiar and unfamiliar... It looked a bit like the "brick phone" from his previous life.
He had ten more of the same brick phones stuffed into a backpack on his back.
They didn't have many other functions yet: calls, a top-up platform, a card issuing platform, and... a Fruit Machine.
The initial plan was to free up one of the Shimura Clan's existing shops and assign someone to stay there, collect cash in exchange for Virtual Currency, and sell the brick phones.
Then people could use Virtual Currency to buy a card number on the Card Issuing Platform. They could use the number to top up the services they wanted. For now, the only thing they could top up was Fruit Machine coins.
There was no help for it. The current technology couldn't handle instant, all-in-one top-ups, so they had to take the roundabout approach.
Then they could let the Fruit Machine sweep Konoha...
It was hard to say about everyone else, but there was one person who would definitely like it.
With that thought, Xian Yu headed for the Senju Clan Compound.
"Xiao Yu, are you here to see little Tsunade? What a shame, she went out with Jiraiya and the others." That was Aunt Haruka. She seemed to be on her way to buy groceries.
"Thank you, Aunt Haruka. I'm here to visit Grandma Mito." Xian Yu smiled back, his eyes crinkling.
He soon arrived at Uzumaki Mito's home and saw that she was already looking toward the courtyard gate.
The Mind's Eye of the Kagura was seriously overpowered.
"Isn't this little Xian Yu? Where have you been these past few days? You haven't come to visit me at all." Uzumaki Mito radiated the air of a poised, dignified, mature woman. Her beautiful red hair and flawless skin were as lovely as ever. When she smiled, she seemed almost as beautiful as Bai Xiaoqi.
"Fairy sister, I've been traveling lately. I came to see you as soon as I got back, didn't I? I missed you so much during those few days apart." As he spoke, Xian Yu took a huge ginseng root he'd prepared earlier from his robes.
It was the Daimyo Ginseng. It had cost him a full thousand Killing Points... Add to that the 1,800 points he'd spent on six Spirit Grains and the 1,000 points for a hundred grains of Spirit Rice, and he had only 70 Killing Points left.
"What's this?" Surprise showed on Uzumaki Mito's exquisite face.
She could sense the tremendous vitality contained in the ginseng.
"It's a gift for you, fairy sister! I was hunted down by elite jonin from Iwa Ninja, Suna Ninja, Kumo Ninja, and Rain Ninja, along with more than a dozen other jonin and dozens of their subordinates, just to get it! I barely made it out alive. Let me tell you what happened..." Xian Yu launched into an extremely exaggerated account of all the terrifying things he'd supposedly been through.
Uzumaki Mito knew the whole ordeal couldn't have been as close a call as the slippery little rascal made it sound, but she couldn't help feeling touched. The Daimyo Ginseng had indeed been the prize several factions were fighting over. There was no doubt the kid had gone through danger to get his hands on it.
Though she had always stayed in the Senju Clan Compound, she wasn't out of touch with the news. She was told most of what Anbu learned as well.
"Didn't Anbu say it was destroyed during the battle?" Uzumaki Mito asked, puzzled. Anbu's reports were always reliable.
"If I hadn't made sure everyone knew it had been 'destroyed,' I wouldn't have made it back alive to see you, fairy sister." Xian Yu looked aggrieved.
He wasn't just trying to curry favor with Mito. In his previous life, as a Naruto fan, Uzumaki Mito and Lady Tsunade had been the characters he liked and respected most.
Those two women had sacrificed no less for Konoha than anyone else. Especially Uzumaki Mito—one could almost say she had devoted her entire life to Konoha.
All because it was the village Senju Hashirama had founded.
Uzumaki Mito smiled sweetly and said, "You really are such a filial boy. No wonder I picked you to be my granddaughter's future husband."
I'm still a kid. Please, spare me! Just let your granddaughter go torment some other unlucky boy. Xian Yu fled in tears.
Before you continue