"Road construction," Ay said, summarizing the proposal in two words.
That was the heart of it. Everything Takeshi had suggested came down to transportation, all with a single goal: to let commoners and merchants move freely through the Land of Lightning. It was something they had never seriously considered before. Building bridges and paving roads had always been the daimyo's business, but hearing Takeshi lay out the logic, they had to admit it made sense. If the Land of Lightning grew wealthier, that wealth would inevitably flow back to them.
There was no downside.
"The theory is sound," the Third Raikage said, a headache already forming behind his eyes. "But how would we actually build it? Carving roads through these mountains is a monumental task."
The vision was appealing, but the reality was harsh. A project of that scale would require a massive initial investment, and neither Kumogakure nor the Land of Lightning had that kind of capital on hand.
"Meow... You have Iwagakure, don't you?" Takeshi asked, looking up at him.
The Iwa-nin were natural masters of earthworks. While they would never normally take orders from another village, Onoki owed Kumogakure a staggering debt. That debt could be converted into labor, putting Iwagakure's shinobi to work on the roads and bridges. Once the foundational infrastructure was in place and reinforcing it would be a much smaller task.
The Third Raikage's eyes lit up. 'That could work.'
In the past, relations between their villages had been so poor that such cooperation would have been unthinkable. But now, with the debt hanging over them, it was a real possibility. Still, a moment later, he frowned. "What's to stop them from sabotaging the work?"
These weren't ordinary roads. A single point of failure could have catastrophic consequences. The core problem was their own lack of expertise. They wouldn't be able to tell if the Iwa-nin cut corners or built in hidden flaws. And Kumogakure had no ninja highly skilled in Earth Release to oversee such work. It was a tricky situation.
"You could ask Konoha to oversee the project," Takeshi said with a blink.
The Third Raikage blinked back. 'So that was his angle.' Having Konoha handle the inspections meant paying them for their services, which would loop them into the profits. But as he thought it through, he realized it was the safest option. Konoha was powerful, fresh off a major victory, and their prestige was at an all-time high. Their Earth Release users might not rival Iwagakure's, but they were more than capable of supervising the construction.
It was feasible.
After a moment of consideration, he nodded. "Alright. I'll take this proposal to the elders."
"Meow!" The black cat nodded and flicked a paw, a dismissive gesture meaning he could go.
The Third Raikage paid the gesture no mind. His thoughts were already consumed by Kumogakure's future. If Takeshi's plan succeeded, their village would become a true city in the clouds. With that level of modernization, merchants and investors would flock to them. "Ay, stay and keep Takeshi company. I'm going to a meeting."
"Ay, stay here and keep Takeshi company," he said. "I'm going to a meeting." With that, he vanished in a blur.
Kumogakure was all about lightning-fast action. Takeshi mused silently that in the future, Ay's habit of ignoring doors and crashing straight through windows to make an exit would probably just be considered the Raikage line's traditional flair.
Ay stood frozen for a moment, watching his father disappear. He was supposed to entertain the cat by himself? The thought alone was exhausting.
Takeshi glanced around the village. The transportation here really was a mess. Platforms were scattered at different elevations, forcing everyone to leap from place to place just to get around. It was no wonder Yugito had gone on a spending spree in Konoha, there wasn't even a decent place to window-shop here.
'This all needs to change,' he decided, observing his surroundings with a critical eye. 'A complete overhaul.'
"Meow... Is there anything good to eat in this village?"
"It's not time for a meal yet," Ay answered automatically. In his vocabulary, there was no concept of a "snack", only scheduled meals and energy supplements.
Takeshi fell silent. 'Boring. Utterly boring.' He was glad he'd never agreed to move here. If he had to rely on his system's lottery just to get a snack, life would be miserable.
"Any place fun around here?"
"The training grounds."
"..." Takeshi was speechless, but he ended up heading to the training grounds anyway. It seemed that aside from its shinobi, Kumogakure had no other noteworthy attractions. There were gambling dens, of course, but those held no interest for him. He figured he might as well watch the Kumo-nin train and see if he could farm some points. He had already managed to squeeze three or four thousand points out of the Third Raikage during their meeting, pushing his total past eighty thousand.
It sounded like a lot, but it wasn't. As his power grew, the upgrades that were truly valuable to him had shifted from the ordinary tier to the Sage tier.
This wasn't the right time to purchase a major power-up. No one in Kumogakure could threaten him, so he decided to hold off on spending his points, even though he had already made his choice. He had agonized for a long time over the two development paths. In the end, he couldn't be sure that a new set of eyes would be fully compatible with his body, so he had settled on enhancing his physique with the Sage Body.
'As long as I'm fast enough and tough enough, no genjutsu can touch me.'
But the Sage Body was incredibly expensive. After purchasing it, he would only have about ten thousand points left. In the past, that would have been a fortune, enough for several meaningful upgrades. Now, it was just a drop in the bucket.
Takeshi sighed at the complexities of life and turned his attention back to his surroundings. He and Ay had arrived at the training grounds.
"Our training grounds are the mountains themselves," Ay said with a note of pride. "This is the best environment for building strength. It's what makes Kumogakure's ninja so powerful."
Takeshi gave a slight nod of agreement.
The village's training area was simple and raw, carved directly into the mountain range. The daily regimen consisted of climbing rock faces, practicing with swords, and throwing kunai. It was a world away from the lifestyle in Konoha. Even the Forest of Death couldn't compare to a childhood spent in these peaks. Kumo-nin grew up scaling cliffs and crossing ridges, so it was only natural that their physical strength was higher on average. Life in Konoha, by contrast, was far too comfortable.
Thinking of this, Takeshi couldn't help but sigh. "A comfortable life can do more harm than good."
"That's right," Ay said, a hint of smugness in his voice. In this, at least, Kumogakure was superior to Konoha. But the more he thought about the phrase, the stranger it began to sound.
"Meow, can I go down and have a look?" Takeshi asked, peering below.
Shinobi were scattered across the training area. At the center of it all, a cheerful young man with several swords strapped to his back was practicing a series of bizarre, twisted poses.
It was Killer Bee. He wasn't in the Valley of Clouds and Lightning, but here in the village, working on his swordsmanship.
"Bee..." Ay muttered, covering his face, unsure how to respond. His brother was at it again with those ridiculous sword forms.
Seven Swords.
No one in Kumogakure, or the entire shinobi world, for that matter, had ever seen a style like it. In Ay's opinion, Bee was wasting his talent on an unrealistic fantasy. He should have been honing a single- or dual-blade style to its absolute limit, not trying to bite off more than he could chew.
"Meow?" Takeshi prompted again.
"It's fine," Ay sighed, relenting. "It's just basic training down there."
With the black cat's second look, he had no choice but to agree. They made their way down the mountainside, heading straight for Killer Bee.
Acrobat: Seven Swords Dance. That was the name of the style Bee was developing, but it was clearly far from complete. His movements looked clumsy and absurd. Across from him stood another Kumogakure jonin, a man who was also a skilled swordsman. Unlike Bee, he specialized in a single blade.
"Bee, this style is impractical," the jonin said, trying to reason with him one more time. "With your talent, you could have a limitless future if you just focused on one sword, or even two."
"With my joints like thunder, it'll work great wonder!" Killer Bee shot back, refusing to yield.
The fact remained, however, that his seven swords had just lost to a single blade. He plopped onto the ground, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong.
Just then, a voice called out.
"Bee."
"Bro!"
Ay may not have approved of his brother's strange swordplay, but he didn't mention it as he walked over. Instead, he simply asked how Bee had been. Killer Bee, rapping and gesturing as always, still showed his older brother genuine respect.
But then his gaze drifted past Ay and locked onto Takeshi.
'That cat again...'
===============
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