"Morning, Hemiao! You're here early today."
"Morning, Captain Xiaoshi! I had nothing else to do anyway, so I came to get familiar with the new factory ahead of time."
"No wonder you became the factory director; there's a reason for it."
"Haha, not at all, it's all thanks to Kazekage-sama's favor. Didn't Captain Xiaoshi also get promoted?"
"Hahaha! It's all thanks to Kazekage-sama's favor!"
...
Hemiao walked quietly through the newly built factory, his heart filled with endless emotion.
It had been almost two years since he fled here. From the initial confusion and helplessness, fearing he might do something wrong and be kicked out, losing this rare refuge.
But who would have thought that today he would be promoted to factory director?
He definitely had to write to Shukō and Daibutsu to tell them this good news. He was sure they would be very happy when they heard it.
He still remembered two years ago, Daibutsu was tested and found to have good ninja talent, so he was admitted to the Sunagakure Academy.
He heard that he had made many good friends there.
There was Kyūsuke, Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, and Sasori, and they all seemed to get along very well...
Soon, work time arrived.
Looking at the crowd starting to work, Hemiao was momentarily at a loss.
After all, he had been busy for most of his life, and this sudden change in identity was truly hard to accept for a while.
But he would definitely adapt quickly to the job!
Moreover, Director Kakuzu said that 150 excavators needed to be assembled this month, which was a very challenging task.
That's right, this factory was for producing excavators.
As early as a year ago, chakra battery technology was already capable of mass production.
Therefore, to free Sasori from his position as an Iron Sand miner, the chakra excavator project was officially approved for research at the First Sunagakure Research Institute.
Relying on Sayan's descriptions and Sunagakure's unique puppet technology, the first excavator was officially completed a month later.
Immediately, an excavator production factory was built next to Sunagakure, specifically responsible for mining and road construction.
This freed up Sasori and a group of Sand shinobi.
Now, another year had passed, and the Shukaku Highway was nearing completion. The number of excavators suddenly became available, and some of them were first-generation excavators with low chakra battery capacity and short battery life.
Originally, Sunagakure planned to destroy them and reclaim usable parts, but Kakuzu was displeased when he heard this.
So he sold this batch of first-generation excavators, and who knew, the effect was quite good, especially in the Land of Earth, which also had a large amount of mineral resources. They wanted to buy as many excavators as they could get.
But this made Kakuzu anxious; he had money he couldn't earn!
However, the production lines at the factories outside Sunagakure had already been upgraded, and the first generation could no longer be produced.
Thus, the excavator factory in the Land of Rain was born, specifically responsible for selling first-generation excavators to external buyers.
In the Land of Rain's Trade City.
Kakuzu was holding a cigarette in his mouth, while Rasa, behind him, quickly pulled out a lighter and lit it for Kakuzu.
He took a deep puff, then said to the person opposite him,
"Expensive! I've already made it very cheap, haven't I? What do you think this place is? A charity hall?!"
"What! It wasn't this price before! That was the price for used ones, of course it was cheap! Now there are no used ones, these are new, so of course the price is higher!"
"Go ask around, everyone in the entire trade city knows that I, Kakuzu, am famous for being fair. What price corresponds to what quality!"
"What! You're asking why new ones are twice as expensive as used ones!"
"Please take a good look at the chakra battery on it. It clearly states it's a second-generation battery, and the battery life is a hundred times longer!"
"That's a 2.5-fold increase, do you know what that means? It means an excavator that could originally only work for three hours can now work for 7.5 hours! Think of how much ore it can dig out for you!"
[Actually, with the continuous iteration of chakra batteries, if first-generation batteries were installed, the cost would be higher than the most advanced chakra batteries currently available, so everyone chose the cheapest third-generation batteries.]
"What! You're saying the previous excavators couldn't work for three hours! I already said they were used! The batteries were used too, of course!"
...
After a long time, the representative from the Land of Earth walked out. After prolonged negotiations and haggling, ultimately, not a single cent was cut from the price.
"Damn it, how could Sunagakure recruit such a business director? He's truly impossible to get anything out of."
"Pah! A bunch of paupers, they think 200,000 for an excavator is expensive. They'll never eat two dishes in their lives!"
Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, Kakuzu, watching the representative from the Land of Earth leave, secretly spat.
"Are there any other big projects to discuss?"
"No, the rest are just some small orders worth a few million."
"Sigh! Alright, then I'll leave it to you to negotiate. You've been with me for two years, you've learned almost everything, it's time for you to get some experience."
"Yes!"
...
"Shukaku-sama, you're the best! You're the number one in the world!"
"Shukaku-sama, you're the strongest! Kicking the Kyūbi (Nine-Tails), you're the strongest!"
On the scorching sand, a group of fair-skinned, beautiful, long-legged kunoichi were holding colorful pom-poms, shouting loudly in the sand!
Among them was a woman with an exceptionally beautiful back.
"I say, Karura, why are we standing here shouting?"
"Idiot, moron! It's because you badmouthed Kazekage-sama and were overheard."
"I wasn't wrong, the Kazekage is a pervert, a scumbag! His house is already filled with..."
"Stop!"
"Stop!"
"I don't want Kazekage-sama to hear it again and assign me more weird tasks."
"Hurry up and keep shouting. If we cheer Shukaku up today, maybe he'll work a bit more and we can finish this task earlier!"
With that, she ignored Pakura, who was grumbling beside her, and continued to shout at Shukaku in the distance.
"Wow! Shukaku-sama is amazing, such a thick rod went in with one go!"
"Oh ho ho ho ho!!!!!!"
"Seemingly sensing the enthusiasm, Shukaku let out a burst of laughter."
"Hahahahaha! That's right, Shukaku-sama is the strongest, hahaha."
After speaking, he casually coiled an 80-meter long, 3-meter wide concrete pillar with his tail, inserted it into the ground, and then manipulated the sand on the ground to form a hammer, striking it down hard.
With a series of "bong! bong! bong!" sounds, a foundation was thus laid.
Then it was the shinobi's turn. One by one, shinobi carried one end of a steel cable, stepped onto the foundations on both sides, ran up, and then laid the steel cable across. Repeating this, the horizontal beams on the foundation were constructed. Next, they just needed to pour concrete and wait for it to dry, and that section would be officially completed.