Kakuzu Arrives

Uchiha Mu had been busy lately. He had handed all financial and intelligence work over to Hyuga Lingnai. With her Byakugan, she was a natural sensory ninja, making her perfect for the job.

He and his clones, meanwhile, were run off their feet. He needed more talent. There were few people in the village he could put to use; even the construction foreman had been the best of a bad bunch.

He also had to think about money. Although he had taken quite a lot from the great nations, he could not keep doing that. He needed to use his new businesses to win over a group of nobles and daimyo while he still had the chance. Only then could he establish a firm foothold.

Otherwise, once they imposed a real blockade, developing his territory and upgrading the system would become incredibly difficult.

Still, the joy of building up his territory was truly addictive, especially with ninjutsu speeding up the process so dramatically. Who would believe that a fairly sizable city had taken less than a month to build?

Hyuga Lingnai was also working under an intense workload. With her Byakugan having no blind spots, she was just as busy. Within its range, spies from other villages had nowhere to hide, and Uchiha Mu was the one who dealt with them.

After all, the other ninja in the village were what they were. He needed to make sure they did not cause too much damage, and this was another part of the postwar cleanup. He urgently needed the Uzumaki Clan's barrier to protect the village, or the two of them would struggle to keep up.

Fortunately, Uchiha Mu had enormous chakra reserves. With the boosts from Hashirama cells and the system's rewards, they were already comparable to Hashirama Senju's.

Besides, most of these spies could not even defeat one of his Shadow Clones, so things had gone smoothly enough. Once this wave of trouble passed, they could enter a period of peaceful development.

"Mu, there's a ninja with a lot of chakra at the village entrance." Hyuga Lingnai relayed the information to him through one of Uchiha Mu's clones.

"That should be Kakuzu. Let's go take a look." Uchiha Mu felt like an overworked beast of burden. This was the downside of founding a village... a nation in this era. The great nations had already absorbed almost all the shinobi clans, large and small. Only small fry were willing to join the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation.

His first step would be to subdue the Seven-Tails in the Land of Waterfalls. Then he would visit the Uzumaki Clan and trade the Rasengan for their barrier and Sealing Jutsu. Finally, he would go to the Land of Water and bring back kekkei genkai. Those were the next three stages of development.

Once they weathered this wave of spies, the village would enter a long period of development. When he reached the entrance, he found that Kakuzu's appearance had changed drastically, yet now matched his memory of him. His demeanor was icy; clearly, he had yet to recover from the betrayal.

"Uchiha Mu, I came here because there's something I want to ask you," Kakuzu said first.

"You feel that the shinobi world is a lie. You gave your village your sincerity, only to be betrayed, and now you think there's nothing real in this world. Is that right?" Uchiha Mu looked at him.

How? He understands me so well. Kakuzu's eyes widened. He had come here looking for an answer. Unlike in the original story, he had been betrayed after returning home, and he believed that Uchiha Mu's public promise had been partly responsible this time.

"For a village's top leaders, the stronger you become, the more uneasy they feel, because they're afraid you'll overthrow them by force. But things are different here. I'm the strongest, so all you need to do is put your talents to use." Uchiha Mu smiled and held out his hand.

"Uchiha Mu, you're different from the Uchiha I've heard about." Kakuzu's gaze was conflicted. He had originally intended to leave after their conversation. In his view, Uchiha Mu would not kill him just because he refused. That was a measure of a man's magnanimity, and he did not think Uchiha Mu was that petty.

"Then let me invite you again. Will you join my nation? Here, you'll have room to put your abilities to use. No matter how exceptional you are, you won't be ostracized or distrusted. Even if something happens to me someday, there'll still be money. Money doesn't lie, does it?" Uchiha Mu held out his hand.

When Uchiha Mu mentioned money toward the end, Kakuzu's eyes lit up. That was true. Money was the only thing he could trust. Commoners, nobles, daimyo, ninja-they all acted for money.

Why did ninja take missions? Wasn't it for the money they received afterward? That would never betray him. Without even realizing it, Uchiha Mu had shown him the way.

"All right." With that, Kakuzu reached out and shook Uchiha Mu's hand.

"Welcome aboard. Finally, someone can help shoulder the load. I'll teach you the Shadow Clone technique first." As Uchiha Mu spoke, he activated his three-tomoe Sharingan. In an instant, Kakuzu fell under a genjutsu.

Before long, Kakuzu returned to normal, his gaze conflicted. He then used the Shadow Clone technique. It was a very useful jutsu, and as a powerful ninja from a small shinobi village, he knew its worth.

"That jutsu of yours is pretty good too. You might even live to see this nation's end." Uchiha Mu patted Kakuzu's shoulder. "I'd also like you to use it in medicine. I've made some headway with Medical Ninjutsu."

Uchiha Mu originally had no yang chakra, but he had gained it after receiving the Hashirama cell transplant. Combined with the fine chakra control his Sharingan provided, he only needed to study further to master Medical Ninjutsu such as the Mystical Palm Technique.

"Will I get paid?" Kakuzu asked almost despite himself.

"Of course. Don't worry. I've paid all the ninja I recruited earlier. Let's take a look around our village first." Uchiha Mu led Kakuzu inside.

Although he had founded a nation, it was currently only on the scale of Konoha. He felt embarrassed to call a place like this a nation.

"Where are they?" Kakuzu asked curiously.

"Helping build the village. I'll take you to see them." As Uchiha Mu spoke, he headed toward the construction site. Quite a few foreign spies were doing forced labor there. He had no choice; he was desperately short of manpower.

If he had arrived in Hashirama's era, or gained his cheat before Hashirama founded his village, he would not have ended up like this. As things stood, development was rapid, but the problems were considerable too.

"Are they building roads, houses, and waterways?" Kakuzu asked.

"Yes. The Land of Waterfalls has abundant water resources, but the Land of Frost doesn't have as much. I've also diverted some water from the Land of Fire. It's only a rough framework right now, but I believe it'll be ready in a few more years."

"What do you want me to do?" Kakuzu thought his Secret Technique would make quick work of this. Each of his hearts corresponded to an elemental nature, allowing him to fill several roles by himself.

"Help me make money. I'll teach you how. First, there's this product: a refrigerator."

"A refrigerator? What's it for?" Kakuzu asked curiously.

"It keeps food fresh and freezes water. Who wouldn't want an ice-cold drink in summer?" Uchiha Mu asked in return.

"What does it run on?"

"Electricity."

"Lightning Release?" Kakuzu asked.

Electricity was widespread in the original story, but this was the transition between the Warring States era and the era of shinobi villages. It would still take some time for electricity to become established. Still, developing it could be quick. After all, ninja could use Lightning Release, making practical applications far easier than creating everything from scratch in his previous life.

So Uchiha Mu soon got electricity up and running, arranging both wind and hydropower. Of course, there was also the Lightning Release Power Plant staffed by forced laborers, which was ridiculously effective. He also found substitutes for the components of related products, and after repeated failures, his clones finally succeeded.