Three months later.
Along the route from Konoha to the capital of the Land of Fire, a straight railway had appeared on the desolate road, its rails gleaming coldly in the sunlight.
The sleepers were new, the gravel was new, and even the newly built boarding stop beside the tracks had barely gathered any dust.
Zongyan stood on the platform, watching the train slowly approaching from the distance.
The locomotive was iron-black, with thin black smoke rising from its chimney. Carriage after carriage rumbled along the tracks.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
Three months.
From nothing to something, from minerals to smelting, from parts to a complete train.
With J.A.R.V.I.S. leading the design work, the Uchiha had built the Shinobi World's first train.
As he watched the train draw closer, something amusing that had happened during this period suddenly came to mind.
It had happened not long after construction began on the railway, when envoys from the daimyo of the Land of Fire suddenly came calling.
Several men in lavish clothes, their noses in the air, stood at the entrance to the Hokage Building and demanded to see Uchiha Fugaku by name.
"Why wasn't the daimyo informed when Konoha appointed a new Hokage?"
"Does the Uchiha Clan no longer want the Land of Fire's resources?"
"Or do you Uchiha simply have no regard for the daimyo?"
Zongyan had just left the Clan Grounds and was passing the Hokage Building, intending to visit his father, when he happened to hear those remarks.
They made the corner of his mouth twitch.
Instead of living quietly as ordinary people, they actually dared to come looking for trouble with shinobi.
Were they tired of living?
Zongyan immediately sent someone to fetch Muzan. Pointing at the envoys still cursing in the Hokage's office,