novel-bin Chapter 18 First Meeting
Chapter 18 First Meeting
In this world, industries such as weapons, medicine, and gold exchange are the most profitable industries outside of the ninja villages, and they are also Oniichiro's future goals.
Unfortunately, these industries are backed by powerful forces, and the weak Kiichiro is not qualified to participate. The fact that he can protect the mines from being robbed shows that the Land of Lightning has good public security. If he forcibly participates in the exorbitant profits, he will definitely be wiped out.
Therefore, Kiichiro first needs to conduct market research to avoid being foolishly scammed.
After entrusting the mining to his butler, Mikuri Satoshi, Kiichiro went to a nearby large town and began staking out a restaurant.
This restaurant has three floors, is quite large, and has a high customer flow, so it should be able to make a lot of money. It's exactly the kind of restaurant that Kiichiro imagined.
The restaurant didn't close until 3 a.m. Oniichiro used Shadow Clone Jutsu to lure away the two ninjas guarding the place, while he, masked, sneaked in and subdued the restaurant owner.
"The money is in the box, don't kill me, don't kill me..."
The shopkeeper, thinking he had encountered robbers, stared in terror at the blade in front of him and revealed where he hid his money.
To be honest, Kiichiro was somewhat tempted by the quick money from robbery, but considering that even powerful organizations like Akatsuki and the Five Great Ninja Villages could only make money by following the rules, it was clear that robbery was a high-risk, low-return industry. If you dared to rob, others would dare to hunt you down, and the more you robbed, the more ruthless the pursuit would be.
In any world, the richest person is never a robber.
After a moment's thought, Kiichiro suppressed the urge to rob him and deliberately changed his voice, saying, "Tell me, who's your backer? How much money do you need to pay?"
The boss answered every question: "We have to pay one-fifth of our income to Tagawa Ryozo every month. Tagawa Ryozo is a man of Nishio Takeki, the minister of the Land of Lightning, and the ninjas here are also sent by them."
Nishio Takeki is a trusted minister of the daimyo of the Land of Lightning, responsible for the country's internal affairs and taxation. Kiichiro had heard of this name.
As expected, with the Cloud Ninja in charge, the Daimyo government of the Land of Lightning is quite powerful. Merchants have to find a powerful figure to protect them. Things like Gato controlling the Land of Waves, as depicted in the manga, will not happen in the Land of Lightning.
"Where do you source your ingredients? Who are their backers?"
"Ordinary ingredients are bought from the market, but expensive, high-quality seafood must be purchased from the Matsushita Trading Company, whose backer is the lord of Blackrock City."
Blackrock City is not far from here. It is a seaside city with excellent bays and well-equipped docks, and there are plenty of seafood every day.
It seems that the nearby fishing industry has been consolidated. Small restaurants with low profits can buy ingredients without anyone interfering, but large taverns have to buy ingredients from the Matsushita Trading Company, or they will not have a good outcome.
We can't just kill everyone in the merchant guild, can we? What about the city lord behind them? Should we kill him too?
What about the people behind the city lord? Were they killed too?
This killing spree will continue indefinitely; eventually, someone will be unable to defeat the opponent and will be killed.
After asking a few more questions and learning about the various stakeholders in the restaurant industry, Kiichiro sheathed his sword and left.
In short, the market in the Land of Lightning is saturated, and all the interests are occupied by various parties. Not to mention whether Kiichiro can join in, even if he does, he will be exploited layer by layer. He works hard, but most of the benefits go to others.
"It seems like I should go abroad. Small countries have small markets, but the vested interests there are also weak. Whatever I earn is all mine."
After investigating and returning home, Oniichiro looked at the map and then at the Moon Country next to the Land of Lightning, feeling that it was worth a try.
"Young Master, you must come back safely."
One morning, Mikuri Tomokazu looked ahead with reluctance as Kiichiro's figure slowly disappeared into the distance.
At this time, Kyosuke was also heading towards the Land of the Moon.
After a series of missions, Class 19 is now in a period of rest. Kyosuke has taken on a mission to go to the Moon Country to meet up with Oniichiro and help him gain a foothold there.
If even the two of them can't stand firm together, then there's nothing they can do. Kiichiro can only return to the Land of Lightning to earn some money and wait until he's stronger before venturing out again.
Kyosuke's mission is to deal with the wild beasts in a village in the Land of Fire.
The beast was a wolf with some chakra. Kyosuke easily dealt with the wolf through schemes and traps and headed towards the Land of the Moon. Finally, a few days later, he met Kiichiro.
Although they saw each other every day in their dreams, this was the first time they had met in real life.
Kyosuke laughed and said, "You really are fair-skinned and chubby. Your temperament doesn't match your name at all. Besides, it'll be hard to find a girlfriend if you don't lose weight."
Oni Ichiro patted the bundle behind him: "Enough nonsense. I brought all the money this time. If we fail, we'll really have to resort to robbery. Pay attention."
"What are you planning to do? I can't stay away from the village for too long."
“I’ve found out. There’s a restaurant in the town ahead that’s on the verge of bankruptcy. I’m going to buy it today.”
Kyosuke looked at Kiichiro and gestured with his hands to indicate the size of Kiichiro's head.
"You've got a big brain, haven't you? Is it filled with mush? Someone else's restaurant couldn't stay open, and you just took over? Where did you get your confidence?"
Kiichiro chuckled: "You don't know, there's only one restaurant in the whole town. It used to do very well, but a while ago a few ninjas came here and made things difficult for the restaurant, ruining it. I guess someone has their eye on the restaurant and wants to find an opportunity to take it over. I'm going to intercept them."
Upon hearing that there were ninjas, Kyosuke became serious: "How strong are they? If they have the strength of Jonin, we are no match for them."
Kiichiro said confidently, "This is a small town with only two or three thousand people. Guys who have the money to hire Jonin won't want to come here."
“That makes sense.” Kyosuke thought about it and agreed, then asked, “You’re not really going to go into the restaurant business, are you?”
Kiichiro shook his head: "Of course not. The hotel is just the beginning. It's mainly for practice and building a network of relationships. We'll transform the business once we have a solid foundation. In any case, the increase in wealth must match our strength, otherwise we won't be able to hold onto it even if we make a lot of money."
After discussing it for a while, Oniichiro went to the restaurant owner to propose buying the restaurant, while Kyosuke hid in the shadows to protect Oniichiro.
The restaurant owner had been losing money these past few days, so distressed that he was pulling his hair out every day and was almost bald. Now that Kiichiro was offering a fair price to buy the restaurant, the owner naturally agreed.
After giving instructions to his employees and completing the formalities, the boss left immediately.
During this process, Kyosuke discovers a ninja monitoring the restaurant.
Seeing that Kiichiro wanted to buy the restaurant, the ninja immediately left and headed towards a residential house. Kyosuke created a shadow clone and followed him.
"Damn it, we were about to succeed, and it was ruined by a little brat! Damn it!"
"Boss, just kill them!"
"We can't take this anymore! There are no other ninjas here, we're the bosses!"