"Yes! Mission accomplished!"
Orochimaru and Dan Katō responded in unison.
His voice was broken, cracked. His pronunciation was dry and harsh.
When Orochimaru bent over, his spine made a clear, muffled crack.
Shu Shiraishi withdrew his hand. A slightly indented palm print remained on the metal control panel.
He turned and walked out of the laboratory. The sound of his military boots on the floor faded into the distance.
When this order was given, the entire Konoha assembly line went into overdrive.
Three heavy machine gun production lines at Factory No. 2 were shut down.
The conveyor belt was forcibly ripped off by the workers. Hundreds of burly Akimichi tribesmen, shirtless, smashed up the conventional iron casting furnace.
They replaced the crucibles with precision crucibles used for smelting high-strength manganese steel. Sparks burned through their canvas aprons.
Three hundred Hyūga craftsmen were pulled into a closed workshop to carve miniature Chakra circuits on a copper base plate.
The Byakugan were open continuously for twenty-four hours.
Several people had blood vessels seeping from the corners of their eyes. When their vision became blurry, they washed their faces with cold water and then blindly carved with their eyes closed.
The Sealing Squad worked four consecutive all-nighters.
Even with the cooling fan running, the room was still as stuffy and hot as a sauna.
Twelve people collapsed from Chakra exhaustion. They were carried out, given two mouthfuls of highly concentrated nutrient solution, their cheeks were patted to wake them up, and then the Four Symbols Formation was drawn.
Dan Katō vomited blood three times in one day.
The soul waveband is repeatedly cut, extracted, and recorded into the insulating crystal by the machine.
He was in so much pain that he broke a molar and bent the armrest of the iron chair.
Orochimaru ruined seventeen versions of the circuit diagram.
The pencil I used for drawing broke more than a dozen times. My fingers were covered in marks from being pricked by the charcoal lead.
The broken vacuum tubes were smashed on the ground. Five large sacks of marijuana were swept up.
Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours.
The machines never stopped. The factory chimneys emitted black smoke for seven days straight. No one slept a wink.
One week later. The Hokage's office.
Sunlight streamed in through the gaps in the slightly ajar curtains, illuminating the thin layer of dust on the mahogany table.
Orochimaru stood in front of the table, his eyes dark circles looking like they'd been smeared with soot.
The white lab coat was stained with yellowish-brown insulating oil, and the collar emitted a burnt smell of electrical components.
He held an object in both hands and slowly bent down.
The movement was very gentle, but the weight of the object itself was undeniable.
Thump.
The mahogany tabletop emitted a dull thud, and the table legs wobbled slightly.
A black metal cuboid.
It looks like a solid brick.
The outer shell is made of rough manganese steel. The burrs on the edges were not sanded down, so they feel a bit sharp and painful to the touch.
It exudes the ruggedness of an industrial assembly line.
A half-meter-long soft rubber antenna stands upright at the top.
A hard brass dial is embedded in the side. The buttons are all cold, mechanical push-button types.
The first Chakra mobile terminal in the Shinobi World. The mobile phone.
Shu Shiraishi leaned back in his leather chair, his gaze fixed on the black brick.
He stretched out his right hand, spread his five fingers, and grabbed it.
It weighs over three pounds.
The outer shell was icy cold, making my wrist sink slightly by half an inch.
"It works?"
Shu Shiraishi pressed his thumb against the brass switch on the side. The resistance when pressed was very strong.
A faint grinding sound came from inside, like the turning of a watch spring.
A red light at the top lit up and flashed twice.
"It's a miniaturized Four Symbols Inversion Array," Orochimaru explained in a hoarse voice.
He turned his head and coughed twice, then wiped the sweat from his chin with his dirty sleeve.
"All the unnecessary vacuum tubes have been removed. Dan Katō's soul-entangled wavelengths are etched into the amethyst inside."
"Effective communication range, ignores barriers. Covers the entire Shinobi World."
Shu Shiraishi pinched the thick, long antenna and pulled it outwards with force.
It's very elastic. It didn't break.
He used his thumb to turn the brass dial on the side.
With a click, the channel was switched to internal test band number three.
Donghai Shipyard No. 3.
The sea breeze carried the salty, fishy smell of dead fish and the strong odor of welding ozone.
Kagami Uchiha stood beneath a windproof scaffold several meters high.
His gray short-sleeved shirt was covered in yellow mud spots, and his forehead was covered in beads of sweat the size of soybeans.
He was watching the four Akimichi clansmen ahead of him carrying heavy armor plates.
"The left side is too low! Push your shoulders up!" Jing yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice hoarse.
The sound of the waves crashing against the breakwater was so loud, coupled with the roar of the pneumatic rivet gun, that you had to shout to talk to someone face-to-face.
Sudden.
He felt a jolt in his left chest.
Inside the inner pocket, there was something hard and hot.
Accompanied by a high-frequency "buzzing" vibration, my chest felt numb from the chafing through my clothes.
Jing was stunned.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the black brick that the Anbu had just delivered yesterday.
The three red lights at the top were flashing wildly.
It looked rather glaring on the gloomy, sea-breezy day.
"What's with this lump of iron...?"
Jing frowned. His thumb accidentally pressed on the protruding brass button on the side.
" Kagami Uchiha."
The sound came directly from the honeycomb metal holes at the bottom of the black brick.
Deep, clear; you could even hear the sound of breathing.
There was no disturbance from the wind or the noise of the waves. It was as if Shu Shiraishi was giving the order right next to his eardrums.
Jing was startled.
With a tremor, the three-pound iron brick nearly slipped from my grasp and smashed onto the back of my foot.
He quickly cupped it tightly in both hands, as if holding a high- Explosive Tag with its fuse pulled.
"H... Lord Hokage?"
He subconsciously brought his legs together and bent over, facing a lump of iron.
The Akimichi tribesmen carrying steel plates stopped in their tracks.
He turned around, his face covered in sweat, and looked at the Uchiha clan leader with a blank expression.
He bowed and spoke to a dark, iron brick.
"The wind is strong in the East China Sea," Shu Shiraishi's voice came slowly and deliberately, "You have quite a loud voice."
Jing swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.
He looked up and around. This was the coastline.
It's separated from Konoha by most of the Land of Fire, a distance of several hundred kilometers.
In the past, when relaying military intelligence from the front lines, even the fastest Ninja Hawk would take a day and a half to fly. If they encountered a rainstorm, they would have to find a cave to take shelter in.
Now, the Hokage's voice echoes across half the continent. Even the sound of rivet guns around him can't drown it out.
"How's the aircraft carrier project progressing?" Shu Shiraishi asked.
Jing quickly brought the iron brick closer to her mouth, placing it near her chin.
"Reporting, sir. The deck is three-tenths complete. Water filling tests have begun in the boiler room."
He stared at the machine in his hands, a fine layer of cold sweat seeping from his back.
There was no violent fluctuation of Chakra. No complex communication seals were formed.
With just these cold, hard parts, they broke the centuries-old stalemate of traditional Ninjutsu.
"Speed up the process. If we're short on materials, we need to contact Kakuzu."
"Yes!" Jing responded loudly.
"Click."
The call was disconnected. The red light then went out.
Jing took the black brick away from his ear. A gust of sea breeze blew, and he shivered.
Look up at the sky.
Beneath the gray clouds, a Ninja Hawk carrying ordinary mail flew by.
It was flapping its wings desperately against the strong sea wind, flying with great difficulty.
A few gray feathers were blown away by the wind, swirling as they fell towards the sea.
The mirror looked at the eagle.
The communication method that Konoha had used for hundreds of years is now obsolete.
Faced with this iron brick in their hands, these birds moved as slowly as if crawling on the ground.
The Hokage's office.
Shu Shiraishi pushed the brass switch with his thumb, turning it off.
The internal gears stopped rotating.
The sound quality is even clearer than expected. There's no physical attenuation due to distance. Dan Katō's near-death experience wasn't in vain.
He flipped his wrist.
"Bang."
The black brick was carelessly tossed onto the mahogany table.
The impact caused several dip pens on the table to jump up. A drop of black ink spilled out and spread across the surface.
Shu Shiraishi picked up the rough porcelain teacup next to him.
I took a big gulp of cold water.
Water droplets trickled down the rim of the glass and dripped into the collar of a black turtleneck short-sleeved shirt, bringing a chill to the air.
He slowly turned his head.
His gaze passed over Orochimaru's shoulder and landed in the left corner of the office.
A small room was partitioned off with a few simple wooden planks.
The wooden door was half-open. There were no windows inside, and it was stuffy and hot.
Yamanaka Fūshin, the chieftain of the Yamanaka Clan, was sitting on a backless wooden stool.
He was wearing a large gray vest. The front of the vest was soaked with sweat and clung to his skin.
On the head of the Fūshin, there was an absurdly large device.
A pair of all-metal headphones, thicker and heavier than a washbasin.
Two copper tube antennas are welded to both sides of the earphone.
Thick black cables dangled from the bottom of the headphones, resembling a dozen or so black intestines, trailing all the way to the main control board embedded in the wall.
Fūshin kept his eyes closed.
The muscles in his face twitched violently every few seconds.
Sweat streamed down his eyebrows and into his eyes, but he didn't even have time to raise his hand to wipe it away.
His breathing was heavy through his nose. His chest heaved as if he were carrying a mountain.
The small room was filled with the acrid smell of burning pine resin.
Shu Shiraishi put down his teacup.
The bottom of the glass slammed heavily against the mahogany table, making a crisp sound.
"The communication terminal is ready."
Fūshin heard the noise and suddenly opened his eyes.
His bloodshot eyes rolled twice.
Quickly raise both hands to support the heavy metal headphone on your head, lest your cervical spine be crushed.
Shu Shiraishi looked at him.
My gaze traveled across those few meters.
" Fūshin."
Shu Shiraishi crossed his arms and rested his elbows on the table.
"I asked you to set up the intelligence monitoring network."
"How's the paving going?"