Chapter 646: Railway Network

Chapter 646: Chapter 646: Railway Network

Chapter 646: Railway Network

"I never thought that one day, old fellows like us would actually be able to sit together, eat calmly, and discuss things like this."

Hiruzen looked around at the people seated with him, his eyes carrying a trace of emotion.

"To be honest, it still surprises me. Sometimes I even feel that everything we’re experiencing now is inseparable from Kenichi."

He looked at his former comrades and lifelong rivals with a helpless smile.

There had been a time when these people were enemies who wanted nothing more than to see one another dead.

Now they could sit at the same table, eat together, discuss plans, and speak without reaching for weapons.

Even Hiruzen found the situation somewhat absurd.

The Kazekage smiled strangely after hearing his words but said nothing.

A, the Raikage, merely shrugged.

He had never particularly wanted to cooperate with these people.

Their villages had fought for far too long.

Over the years, countless blood feuds had accumulated on every battlefield.

Under normal circumstances, cooperation between them should have been almost impossible.

Yet Kenichi had forced the issue.

According to him, the world would face enemies far stronger than anything the shinobi villages had ever dealt with before.

Continuing to waste strength fighting among themselves would be the height of stupidity.

A did not completely understand all of Kenichi’s reasoning, but Kenichi’s strength made arguing pointless.

So the Raikage had eventually decided to accept the situation.

At first, this new way of living had been uncomfortable.

But after enough time passed, even A had to admit that it was not necessarily bad.

"To be honest, all of this is still ridiculous."

A leaned back slightly.

"But compared to that, there’s something else I find even harder to accept."

"The older generation."

He shook his head.

"I don’t know whether the rest of you feel the same way, but every time I see those elders, I feel like I’ve gone back to being a child."

"I never imagined I’d actually get to see my father again."

There was genuine emotion in his voice.

Compared with political cooperation between villages, A cared far more about being able to live alongside his father again.

At the mention of the older generation, Hiruzen’s expression also became somewhat strange.

If they were talking about resurrected elders, Konoha had undoubtedly benefited the most.

Two of the strongest shinobi in history had returned and were currently living in Konoha.

That alone was one of the major reasons the Five Kage had chosen Konoha as the location for their joint meetings.

No Kage could ignore the existence of Hashirama and Madara.

And the successors of those two men, Naruto and Sasuke, were equally impossible to overlook.

Still, in everyone’s minds, there was another existence standing even higher.

Kenichi.

His strength had become increasingly unfathomable.

Fortunately, he had shown no interest in personally ruling the world.

Because of that, the Kage could still maintain their original positions.

Even so, all of them understood one thing clearly.

There was someone above them now.

"Enough reminiscing."

The Kazekage finally spoke.

"According to Mr. Kenichi’s previous instructions, we now need to connect the entire continent, along with several surrounding regions."

He looked around the table.

"So how are preparations going on your sides?"

"Is your funding sufficient?"

"If not, should we arrange additional appropriations?"

He paused.

"We’ll need support from everyone."

"You all know the Land of Wind is poor."

"Although we possess some mineral resources, other resources are extremely scarce. We’ve even started discussing large-scale migration."

The atmosphere immediately became more serious.

They had not gathered merely to reminisce.

This meeting had a common objective.

And depending on what they decided here, the entire Shinobi World could undergo enormous changes.

After this meeting, the old structure of the Five Great Nations and numerous smaller countries might gradually cease to exist.

The people and territories of the world would begin merging into a single greater system, moving toward the same general goal.

That was also what Kenichi wanted.

He had never directly used military force to seize control of the world.

Yet as his strength continued rising, the world itself was increasingly changing according to his ideas.

Hiruzen’s expression became serious.

This was indeed the main subject of the meeting.

Kenichi had said something simple before.

If you wanted to become prosperous, you first had to build roads.

A complete transportation network was essential.

That was why Kenichi had recently introduced another major project.

A railway system connecting all of the former Five Great Nations.

At first, Hiruzen had not completely understood what a railway system was.

But after Kenichi demonstrated the concept and showed him how it would work, he understood.

Hiruzen had initially thought it seemed somewhat unnecessary.

Shinobi could travel quickly on foot, after all.

But ordinary people could not.

Once he considered the enormous civilian population of the world, Hiruzen understood why Kenichi considered railways important.

So he supported the project.

Hiruzen looked around at the other Kage and seriously explained the plans Kenichi had proposed.

The others were somewhat surprised.

They had also received the request, but most had not yet seen the railway system demonstrated personally, so their understanding remained vague.

Still, since it was Kenichi’s will, there was little reason to argue against the overall direction.

This world had always respected strength.

If someone possessed overwhelming strength, that person naturally had far more freedom to shape events.

If one lacked that strength, then following the plans of stronger people was often the only realistic option.

A’s expression gradually became uncomfortable.

He glanced around with obvious irritation.

Hiruzen noticed.

That confused him.

The Raikage himself was powerful, so what exactly was bothering him?

"Raikage, what’s with that expression?"

Hiruzen looked at him seriously.

"Did something go wrong on your side?"

"Or did you encounter difficulties when dealing with your Daimyo?"

Everyone at the table became quiet.

Hiruzen continued.

"You know Kenichi’s instructions."

"All of our regions were supposed to eliminate the Daimyo and appropriate their wealth for public use."

"Even the Land of Wind has already dealt with theirs."

"So if there’s some problem on your side, that could become troublesome."

He looked directly at A.

"Kenichi is still in Konoha."

"If necessary, you can come with me to see him and ask how he wants you to proceed."

Everyone turned toward the Raikage.

A scratched his head irritably.

This was exactly the issue troubling him.

Previously, Kenichi had ordered every region to eliminate its Daimyo and seize their accumulated wealth.

That money alone would be enough to fund a large portion of the infrastructure projects they were now discussing.

Most regions had carried out the order relatively smoothly.

Kumogakure had not.

The Land of Lightning’s Daimyo had treated Kumogakure quite well over the years.

The village had received considerable preferential treatment.

Because of that, even A found it difficult to simply order the Daimyo’s death.

So although Kumogakure had technically implemented Kenichi’s directive, they had only placed the Daimyo under house arrest.

They had not killed him.

Now Hiruzen had noticed something was wrong.

A felt even more irritated.

That old man Hiruzen still refused to die.

Truly, an old man who refused to die became a thief.

"There’s no need for that, old man Hiruzen."

A waved him off.

"There’s no major problem on my side."

"I’ll follow Kenichi’s requirements properly, so you don’t need to worry about the Land of Lightning."

He immediately changed the subject.

"What I’m more concerned about is the railway network."

"How exactly are we supposed to divide the planning work and manpower?"

"We obviously can’t send every shinobi we have."

"Ordinary workers also can’t simply cross every dense forest and mountain range during the planning stage."

"So designing these routes won’t be simple."

A looked toward Hiruzen.

"Since you people are supposedly leading this project, then logically you should take responsibility for providing some of the necessary specialists."

"At the very least, contribute something useful."

"Or does Konoha not have that kind of capability?"

"If not, then hand the leadership position over to me."

"We have plenty of capable engineers who can design the routes ourselves."

Hiruzen looked at A for a moment.

He could roughly guess what the Raikage was trying to do.

But he did not expose him.

What happened inside the Land of Lightning was ultimately A’s responsibility.

And more importantly, Hiruzen knew he did not have the authority to decide how Kenichi should respond.

If Kenichi wanted to punish A, overlook the matter, or handle it some other way, that was Kenichi’s decision.

At the moment, Kenichi was still busy with experiments and had little time for political matters.

So Hiruzen let the subject drop.

Instead, he seriously considered A’s question.

Konoha did have shortages in certain specialized fields, but providing engineers was still possible.

Soon, the entire meeting room erupted into heated discussion.

Everyone began arguing.

Even though the villages were cooperating now, arguments over funding, manpower, route placement, and resource distribution had not disappeared.

How much money should each side contribute?

How much should each region receive?

Who would provide workers?

Who would provide engineers?

Who would maintain the completed railways?

Everyone fought fiercely over those questions.

Hiruzen actually found the atmosphere somewhat enjoyable.

They were arguing, yes.

But everyone understood that violence was no longer an option.

No one could simply declare war because negotiations failed.

The dispute had to be resolved through words.

Because of that, everyone took the discussion seriously.

After all, the railway project involved an enormous amount of money.

...

"I’m seriously fucking fed up!"

Hagoromo glared at Kenichi.

"What the hell did you do to my mother?"

"Why is Kaguya acting like this now?"

"I really don’t understand what you... Ah, damn it!"

Hagoromo looked genuinely irritated.

Kenichi’s mouth twitched.

Honestly, he had not expected Kaguya to become like this either.

So when facing Hagoromo, Kenichi did feel slightly guilty.

The problem was that Kaguya’s current condition had exceeded all of Kenichi’s expectations.

He genuinely did not know why she had changed so drastically.

Naturally, that meant he did not have any reliable way to fix the problem either.

And at this point, Kenichi felt that dealing with the furious Hagoromo in front of him might be even more troublesome than solving Kaguya’s condition.

Hagoromo took several deep breaths.

He repeatedly tried to calm himself.

It barely helped.

"If I told you I genuinely don’t know why Kaguya became like this, would you believe me?"

Kenichi shrugged helplessly.

The problem with Kaguya was probably related to what happened after consuming the chakra fruit.

But Kenichi himself did not know the proper process for developing the chakra fruit’s power.

The only person who likely knew was Isshiki.

And Isshiki was already dead.

Because of that, the entire matter had practically become a cold case.

Unless another Otsutsuki suddenly appeared and explained the proper method, Kenichi, Hagoromo, and even Kaguya herself had no reliable way to determine exactly what had gone wrong.

Hagoromo fell silent.

To be fair, he did not truly expect Kenichi to understand everything.

Even Kaguya herself had no clear explanation for her current state.

But that was not what bothered him most.

His mother had changed.

And she had even become Kenichi’s...

....

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