"Volume one is over."
When I wrote those words, my feelings were actually pretty complicated.
From a babbling baby in Konoha Year One to a young man standing at the core of Rōran's Dragon Vein in Konoha Year Fourteen, looking down over parallel worlds, Toyotomi Yinglang had lived through fourteen years. And writing those fourteen years took me... uh, count for yourselves. Quite a few chapters, anyway.
Originally, I planned to wrap up volume one around the Battle of the Valley of the End, but before I knew it, I'd written eighty-five chapters. That guy Yinglang was just too good at stirring things up.
The book began with an orphan from a branch family of the Uchiha. His father had died at Tobirama Senju's hands, and his mother was a widow who could only get damp wood shavings even when the clan distributed firewood.
What did the protagonist go through?
Breaking ice to catch fish in the bitter winter, making a name for Tao in spring;
Marrying into Elder Xuan's household and beginning his climb up the social ladder;
Becoming a legend in a single fight at the year-end assessment, awakening his Sharingan at five, and crushing Kagami Uchiha;
After Elder Xuan was attacked, using swift, decisive measures to strip Yuanguang of power and exercise an elder's authority in his stead;
Watching the battle at the Valley of the End and discovering that the Sage of Six Paths was secretly favoring Hashirama;
Expanding the Konoha Military Police Force, raking in money like mad, and building an ironclad domain in the East District;
Breaking away from the Uchiha, establishing the Toyotomi Clan, and intimidating everyone present with the "Speed Ninja Pill";
Discovering a new continent overseas, establishing Great Britain, and implementing a three-tier system of Citizens, Freemen, and Slaves;
Mass-producing Repeating