In one of Tanzaku's most expensive inns, two women sat in the shared lounge at a round table that looked out over the central and northern parts of the city. Their dresses were simple to the eye yet no less stylish for it.
Their conversation looked lively enough to make onlookers think they were arguing about something important.
"I still think we should open the third envelope," Saiko said with conviction.
"But Akira-san's instructions are clear: open the second envelope if weekly takings exceed three million ryō, and the third if they exceed five million."
"Oh, please. At those scales, four and a half million ryō is practically the same as five," Saiko countered.
"Be that as it may, the instructions are precise." Not wanting another loop of debate, Ayumi tore the second envelope open on the spot - and watched in surprise as the other two on the table instantly burned to ash.
The sheet inside held fewer words than she expected:
[Since you've opened this envelope, it means the Silver Palace's weekly profit did not exceed six million ryō. Which was, frankly, a fairly likely outcome. Ayumi, you can return to Konoha; Saiko should be able to handle the rest.
Saiko, here are your tasks for the next few days:
- After 12:00, stop accepting customers in the clothing stores, citing that stock is flying off the shelves like hot cakes (the same goes for the lingerie shop). Blame excessive demand and say prices may go up next month as a result.
- Raise prices on VIP floors by 50 percent; introduce a special VIP membership system (details on the reverse side).
- The classic immortal gambit: free snacks throughout the day. You know exactly how that works.
- Give a lollipop to every tenth customer in the supermarket, and to every child accompanied by a parent.
Thanks in advance for the work. Your incorrigible and best employer, Akira.]
Saiko took the sheet and read with slow, careful attention. Then she glanced around the empty floor of guest rooms.
"And how exactly is raising prices supposed to help? And limiting clothing sales?" She couldn't follow Akira's logic.
"If you think you're cleverer than Akira, why not open your own shopping center? Or shall I remind you how, the day before opening, you kept telling me no one would set foot in here?" Ayumi teased.
"That was nerves talking!" Saiko protested. "Honestly, I didn't expect this kind of crowd. And if I had a few free millions, maybe I would open a mall."
"Mm-hmm. You say that like Akira-san got his money for free."
"Didn't he? He throws it left and right like he owns a gold mine," Saiko pried.
"Unlike you, I've worked with him since the very start," Ayumi said with a touch of pride, then continued, "He began with a single restaurant whose popularity no one could guarantee - not even him. He still risked most of his savings. You could say he got lucky, sure. But to open a second McDonald's and this mall, he took out a big loan. And now, as we see, he's 'lucky' again.
I'll say this: Akira sees the world his own way. If you think you're wiser, why don't you go take a bank loan and start your own business? Hmm? So simple," she finished with a smile.
"Well... the risk is high, and the niche is already taken. I can't compete with Akira," Saiko admitted, eyes down, a bit abashed.
"Exactly. You and I are afraid to risk that kind of money. He isn't. That's why we're just managers, and he can 'throw money around'," Ayumi said, stating the obvious.
"Ahem, well... not such simple managers," Saiko reminded her.
"Fine, manager-of-managers - that's you. I'm Akira-san's personal assistant and only helped you temporarily," Ayumi replied. In her mind, it was the most honorable role. She didn't manage people; she conveyed the will of the person who mattered most.
Though Ayumi and Saiko were often seen together, chatting pleasantly, they didn't actually like each other much. Consciously or not, Akira always put them in situations where they had to argue matters and, as women who'd lived very different lives, they rarely agreed.
Leaving Ayumi with Saiko, he aimed to have each keep an eye on the other. Saiko believed Akira contacted her most often; Ayumi believed exactly the opposite. In short, both of them would happily share the sins and slip-ups of their "rival."
*Yes, yes, keep flattering yourself - but Akira entrusted his most valuable enterprise to me,* Saiko thought to herself, secretly smirking at Ayumi.
*Laugh it up. Even before he left Tanzaku, Akira-san told me to find and prep someone to watch you in my absence. He trusts me far more than you,* Ayumi answered with her eyes.
What Ayumi didn't know was that if Akira had one more trusted shinobi, he'd have asked them to watch Ayumi, who was watching Saiko, who was watching the managers - and might even have found someone to watch the watcher who watched Ayumi who was... In short, Akira fully endorsed the maxim: trust, but verify.
****
"Fifteen thousand ryō for water!? Did they leave every tap open?" Akira stared at the water and power bills. Usually, electricity outstripped water. This month it was the opposite.
"That's what I get for letting women into my house. When I'm alone, water runs me barely a thousand ryō..." He shook his head, tossed the bills into the bin, and went to wash his hands - he'd just come in from outside.
Watching the steady thread of water, he paused, then slid his fingertips into the stream. For a split second the flow's integrity frayed - but it kept running without breaking once.
"Still can't do it..." Akira slumped a little.
After mastering Rasengan, any self-respecting isekai lead's next step is Rasenshuriken - but first you need to learn nature transformation. Rasengan taught him shape transformation, changing the form and movement of chakra. That's advanced chakra control. For any jōnin, the other must-have is nature transformation - adding a natural element to chakra. Without both, Rasenshuriken and most S-rank techniques are off-limits.
From the anime, Akira knew a reliable sign of wind-nature mastery: a wind-chakra blade that can cut an object as dense as a sheet of water. For example, a human body. If you can slice a wide stream of water bare-handed with chakra control, you can slice a person of the same thickness. He'd done the leaf-cutting stage already; mastering water was twice as hard and took twice as long.
"Damn. This is when you envy Jinchūriki. With a hundred-odd clones I'd crack this in a couple days." He pulled his hands from the faucet and flushed them with wind chakra. They dried instantly. That was about the extent of his parlor tricks for now.
"Whatever. There's still a year till the canon starts. In that time I should at least hit tokubetsu jōnin level - if not scrape into full jōnin," he thought. He'd already set one clear goal: pour most of his energy into powering up.
Thanks to sheer hustle, Akira had finally poured concrete into the foundation of his finances. The mall was that concrete slab. Two McDonald's, investments in the Land of Snow, more than a dozen shopfronts in the mall, apartments in Konoha and Tanzaku that he'd had Ayumi purchase so neither of them would hunt for inns on business trips, plus the house deed Mezumi left him in her city - a little brother's reunion gift meant to tie him to her prefecture.
Passive royalties from his book were only climbing too. Credit where due: Tanzaku's traders had pushed his book throughout the Land of Fire and beyond.
Tomorrow, Akira planned to release the second and final part of The Search for Truth, so if popularity held, writing alone would bring in about two million ryō a month for half a year before the natural taper. He might not have been the most popular author in the country, but he was certainly one of the richest.
All told, he owned roughly 180 million ryō in assets. Enough to buy 40 houses in Konoha or 20 in Tanzaku at average market rates. If he liquidated it all, he could build a village for 300 people. You could say he'd entered the world of magnates.
He was still far from the true heavyweights - in connections and in power - but offers for partnerships were already trickling in. Some wanted him to invest in their factories; others suggested joint ventures. For now, he declined, saying he wanted to get steady on his feet and pay down his loan.
With money matters parked or shifted onto his assistant's very capable shoulders, it was time to grind strength.
Daily physical work and Hayane's treatments had pushed his chakra volume to strong chūnin levels. And in a short span, old lady Fujiko had drilled into him the key shinobi reflexes - albeit at rookie-graduate level. He could knock away a flying kunai or shuriken now, assuming he reacted in time, and ward off several in sequence so long as they didn't come simultaneously. He couldn't yet pull off the acrobatic flourishes Uchiha liked to show off - not that it was required.
Thanks to frequent runs through the forest park under Fujiko's ever-present threat, he'd nailed chakra dosing for jumps and sprints. What he still lacked were real combat experience and his own taijutsu style. Like it or not, basic boxing wasn't enough for this world. Legs are the deadliest weapon in taijutsu - which is why Uchiha's Dancing Dragon style focuses there.
Of course, the Hyūga would disagree - not that anyone without a Byakugan asked them.