"Who would have thought steam could be so useful..." Ichinose said in admiration, gazing at the prototype steam-powered rail cart.
"They can be implemented in your mines, thereby increasing output," Kenshin said with a smile.
"Such quantities of copper and iron ore would quickly saturate the market, and my family would earn nothing..." Kimura Ichinose said with a sigh, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Under the current circumstances—yes. However, Ichinose-san, my Nakayama Family is ready to buy all your ore at market price," Kenshin replied with a smile, greatly surprising the Kimura Family head.
Approval of all contract points continued until evening. Kimura Ichinose fully saw the prospects of cooperation with the Nakayama Family and even revised some points to increase them.
Thus, the contract for building a massive railway and equipping all mines was signed. In addition to trade agreements, the Kimura Family committed to providing several hundred men in the first days and finding several thousand workers in the first weeks to ensure rapid construction of all facilities.
The Nakayama Family, in turn, committed to fully handling labor organization and training all workers in new construction and complex steam mechanism operation technologies.
Moreover, Kimura Ichinose invested 140 million ryō in the venture. Kenshin sorely lacked money at this stage, so the 50 million advance was extremely timely and was immediately incorporated into development plans.
Kenshin barely found the energy to pay attention to his two beauties. In the end, after several hours of lovemaking, Kasumi and Natsumi became pregnant again and blissfully fell asleep in their husband's arms.
After breakfast on the morning of day 473, Kenshin congratulated little Forty Seventh on coming of age and headed to the gym to help him ignite his chakra node. The procedure didn't take long, and within an hour, Kenshin could finally see the basic stats of his first son with Keiko.
Name: Forty Seventh
Age: 20 years
Talent Level: 43
Chakra Quality: 4
Chakra Amount: 11760
Chakra Control: 21%
Such talent stats in his son couldn't fail to please Kenshin, and after publicly praising him, he decided to devote the day to a detailed analysis of all his sons' achievements.
Ichiro pleased him with tangible progress in his dojutsu. The three-tomoe Sharingan allowed him to push beyond his limits, fighting evenly with a mid Jonin without the "Patriarch's Aura" and not yielding to a peak one with it.
Moreover, the three-tomoe Sharingan provided immense genjutsu resistance and allowed him to easily cast illusions on opponents, which Ichiro skillfully used in spars against Fifteenth and Twenty Second.
His "space authority" had also undergone tangible changes, letting him literally teleport within a thirty-meter radius. For now, this ability was mostly for dodging enemy attacks, but Ichiro never stopped improving and increasingly caught his brothers off-guard with instant repositioning behind them.
Fifteenth, in turn, had made noticeable progress in unity with suiton and shadow control. Unfortunately, Kasumi couldn't teach him the shadow walking technique, but Kenshin managed to extract fragments of her memories observing Nara Shikaku use it and compile a rudimentary theory.
He increasingly succeeded in controlling shadows without seals or gestures. It was still barely applicable in fierce combat, but sometimes it turned the tide when a sudden attacker froze for a split second and ended up disadvantaged.
Twenty Second, meanwhile, was rapidly catching up to his mother in iryōninjutsu skills and had fully surpassed her in shinobi skills. Even as an iryonin, he was a formidable fighter, and through numerous spars, he earned combat iryonin qualification.
But the most joyful discovery was Forty Second. He was so untamed that he trained almost constantly, often ending up in treatment with his older brothers or even Hitomi.
Kenshin didn't skimp on baths of concentrated blue sage decoction, so chakra reserves and tenketsu damage recovered much faster than normal, allowing Forty Second to train recklessly.
In the month after coming of age, he achieved shocking results and was close to Chunin rank. Even at Genin peak, he could fight weak Chunin without issue and hold long against mid ones.
Full transformation in "berserk" mode let him match mid Chunin, ignoring sprains, dislocations, and bruises. In this mode, he often lost control, requiring the eldest to intervene.
For several weeks, Kenshin leisurely studied the phenomenon of Noriko and Forty Second's unusual kekkei genkai. He concluded it resembled what one of Orochimaru's test subjects named Jugo demonstrated.
Though the transformation differed greatly, the loss of reason was very similar. Among positive traits, Kenshin noted the incredible boost in physical stats.
During transformation, muscles and bones not only grew but became far tougher. Explosive power and speed astonished even his much stronger sons, and baseline durability shocked the battle-hardened Hitomi.
Moreover, there was one far more useful aspect to this ability. Even with fully suppressed chakra, Noriko and Forty Second effortlessly showed not-weak Genin strength, making speedy mastery of the eight gates opening technique all but vital.
In the entire Nakayama Family, only one person wasn't happy that Kenshin spent half the day studying his sons' achievements and dispensing useful advice. Little Karin was fiercely jealous of her older brothers and categorically disliked that he praised everyone but her, so she decided to stand out and get her share of praise.
"Daddy, I've learned a lot too!" she declared, hands on hips.
"Of course, sweetie. You're very gifted!" Kenshin said with a smile, instantly changing his expression and tone.
Forty Second standing beside him merely snorted disdainfully and grimaced. He strongly disliked tenderness, but understood girls needed a different approach than boys, so he kept his opinion to himself, not wanting to argue with his father.
"Bet it's better than his big muscles!" Karin declared, sticking her tongue out at Forty Second.
"Nothing beats raw power," he replied, pointedly turning away to show his contempt for her girly tricks.