Lushan was an ordinary man who had fled from the Land of Rain to the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation. With so many ninja in this world, even ordinary people kept up with news about them.
Uchiha Mu had made a name for himself in a single battle, and the nation under his command had become famous along with him. Knowing that powerful ninja protected the place, Lushan had taken his belongings and headed for the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation without hesitation.
Fortunately, the journey had been uneventful. After undergoing a series of inspections upon arrival, he had successfully become a citizen. His first glimpse of the city had stunned him: the streets were spacious, with carriages and pedestrians coming and going.
He had also been assigned a home of his own, a simple wooden house with one bedroom and a living room. He was perfectly satisfied with it. Most houses in this era were made of wood.
Like most people, he had brought his family along. He worked at a factory that manufactured refrigerators, doing a simple job with meals provided. Although he earned less than a ninja, he could support his family and still have money left over.
He had heard that the factory would soon recruit a large batch of workers because a big order had come in. Unlike ninja, he was an ordinary person and had to get up a little earlier every morning. Fortunately, he had been assigned to a nearby village.
"Take care on your way, dear."
"Mm. How's our son doing at the Ninja Academy?" Lushan asked.
"He doesn't have the talent to become a ninja. His teacher told us to have him learn a trade." His wife was rather relieved. To her, their son's lack of talent was a good thing. At least they wouldn't have to worry about him.
A ninja's high pay was proportional to the risks. Once they encountered danger, things could easily go wrong.
"He can come to the factory with me, then. He'll earn a little less because he's young, but he can still make some money." With that, Lushan closed the door behind him and called, "I'm off."
He stepped onto the stone-paved street, which was naturally the ninja's handiwork. The rooftops had also been specially reinforced so ninja could travel across them easily without disturbing the people living inside too much.
"Good morning, Lushan."
"Good morning, Mr. Dashan."
After greeting his neighbors, Lushan arrived at the factory. Once he passed Mini Chōmei's inspection, he entered the workshop, went to his station, and began working.
He ate lunch with his coworkers at noon and left after finishing work in the afternoon. He worked ten hours a day, with one day off each week. He was busier than before, but he felt secure.
This was just a snapshot of life in the city. Up in the office building, Uchiha Mu sat scratching his head. Keiko Uzumaki had just told him that expenses exceeded income. If they kept developing at this pace, the money Kakuzu had brought back wouldn't last a year.
"Looks like we need to slow down. No matter how fast we develop, we still need the population to support it." Uchiha Mu surveyed the village's current development. They had industry now, but merchants still didn't dare invest here. Rather, they didn't even understand the concept of investment yet.
If he wanted to rake in the merchants' money, he could only sell them goods and let them profit from the markup. How long would that take? Uchiha Mu turned his attention to the laboratory.
There were ten clones there, along with researchers who had recently joined the village. After all, with a population this large, finding a few researchers wasn't a problem.
"How are the kettle tests going?" one of the researchers asked.
"No problems with any of the tests. After a little more durability testing, it should be ready to sell," Uchiha Mu's clone replied. Starting with people's basic daily needs, Uchiha Mu planned to get a head start on introducing these electrical appliances.
"What else could make money?" Uchiha Mu stopped observing the laboratory and watched his Shadow Clone review documents. His original body, meanwhile, had nothing to do.
Looking at a Soldier Pill, Uchiha Mu had an idea. Ninja generally needed these for long journeys. They filled the stomach, but as for the taste, the best one could say was that they were edible.
Uchiha Mu wanted to work out their formula and introduce different flavors. Soldier Pills weren't difficult to make. The Uchiha had fought the Senju for so long and experienced all kinds of battles, so naturally, they knew how to make them.
Uchiha Mu soon made several batches, but they were either too sweet or a little too salty. The proportions still needed work, but that was fine. A few more attempts would give him a better idea.
Why hadn't anyone developed different flavors of Soldier Pills after all this time? Ordinary people had no use for them, and ninja couldn't be bothered to research such things. Most ninja wanted to become stronger. Nobody wanted to waste time on this.
With the help of several Shadow Clones, Uchiha Mu developed a variety of flavors in just three days. He put them straight into shops on the commercial street to see how well the ninja would accept them.
Hyuga Lingnai and Keiko Uzumaki certainly liked them. They were so busy here that they had no time to cook, and now both women got through lunch on the tasty Soldier Pills Uchiha Mu had invented.
Once he was satisfied with the results, Uchiha Mu built another factory and used a Summoning Beast to contact Kakuzu. This invention would let him trade with other ninja villages, as well as merchant caravans that needed to travel long distances.
After creating another Gold-Producing Beast, Uchiha Mu was in an excellent mood. For the first time in a while, he checked the system panel.
[Nation: Hundred-Clan Shinobi Nation] [Level: Lv1] [Population: 10231] [Population happiness: 86% (target exceeded)] [Title: Renowned throughout the Shinobi World] [Note: A nation held up by one man. If anything happens to you, everything will collapse...] [Upgrade requirements met]
"Upgrade." Uchiha Mu upgraded without hesitation, eager to see what rewards it would give him.
[Upgrade complete. Obtained: chakra, Spatial Perception Talent, Food Improvement Seeds, assorted blueprints, gold coins × 10,000]
Uchiha Mu was delighted by the rewards. First, his chakra reserves continued to grow. He felt that he almost had more than a Tailed Beast now-with the exception of the Nine-Tails, of course.
But even if his chakra couldn't match it, he felt he could deal with the Nine-Tails with a single look.
Next came the Spatial Perception Talent. He could sense fluctuations in space now. Give him a few days, and he would master Flying Thunder God. He had grown stronger again.
Then came the assorted blueprints. He realized they would save him a great deal of trial and error and let him turn this place into something resembling his previous world. Excited, he had his clones take all the blueprints to the laboratory at once and reproduce them one by one.
Then he looked at the seeds. There were grain varieties from his previous world, along with seeds for all kinds of vegetables. His eyes lit up. This would send their development soaring, and he could even enjoy all sorts of food from his previous life.
Most importantly, there were ten thousand gold coins. His anxiety over money vanished at once. The value of this world's currency was roughly one to ten compared with Japanese yen in his previous world. With these ten thousand gold coins, he really was rich.
Uchiha Mu immediately relaxed. There would be no cuts to benefits. Next, all they needed to do was keep a low profile and develop. The population requirement for the next upgrade was fifty thousand. That was rather high.
Seeing Uchiha Mu's expression, Keiko Uzumaki asked, "Mu? Did something good happen?"
"Yes. We shouldn't be short of money anymore." Uchiha Mu smiled, then frowned. These gold coins were from the Shinobi World, weren't they?
"We're not short of money?" Keiko Uzumaki put down the documents in her hands and looked at Uchiha Mu curiously. They had checked the accounts recently. Even with the money Kakuzu had brought back, they didn't have enough to last a year at their current rate of spending.
"One of my clones outside found quite a few gold coins. They were probably savings left by some ninja clan that got wiped out, so no one knew about them." Uchiha Mu found himself an excuse.
"Huh?" Keiko Uzumaki looked utterly baffled, then stood and walked over to Uchiha Mu to confirm the information.
"My clone was out there. After its chakra dissipated, its information came back to me," Uchiha Mu said with a perfectly straight face. With his current chakra reserves, his clones could already function like Naruto's during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Before you continue