BBQ Q

This was Konohagakure, and another beautiful, peaceful day had begun.

Hiruzen Sarutobi leisurely sipped his afternoon tea.

The past couple of days had been rather peaceful. Nice... Wait, something seemed off.

Why hadn't that brat Naruto been pulling any pranks?

Scrying Jutsu wasn't a tracking technique, much less the Marauder's Map.

"Compile Naruto's movements over the past few days and bring them to me."

The previously empty Hokage's Office suddenly flickered as an Anbu appeared, acknowledged the mission, and vanished again.

A short while later, the report that should have arrived that evening was delivered to Hiruzen Sarutobi ahead of schedule.

＜Old man on the subway staring at phone.jpg＞

"What even is this..."

"Who would have thought an Uchiha could lower himself like that... Then again, he was still a child. What bad intentions could he possibly have?"

"Now that Naruto wasn't causing trouble, it actually felt a little strange."

He had forgotten to tell Naruto to keep it secret. It wasn't anything major, but it did somewhat ruin his image.

Profit-driven? Not so fond of showing off in private? Child Laborer really was too awful.

Watching the gathered "Standing Punishment F4," Naruto excitedly told them something, occasionally glancing his way.

It was too embarrassing. He really didn't dare guess what they were talking about.

He kept making him suffer like this. The original body had to bleed a little. If he didn't get to eat Ichiraku Ramen at least once, he would find a chance to skip class and make him stand as punishment too. Right, he also had to find a chance to try the legendary BBQ Q.

Sasuke, who had brought a bento over at noon to actually eat lunch and switch shifts with his Shadow Clone, received the thought his clone sent back to his brain and let out a long sigh.

He had never heard that using a Shadow Clone would be like raising a Summoning Beast—or rather, a humanoid pet—that kept making demands. It had said it wanted to soak in a hot spring before. Come to think of it, he really did want to try it. There was a Hot Spring District in the village, and as for eating out, he could find an opportunity later.

The first batch of rice had been threshed after school, taking quite some time.

There was... very little. More than ten mu of land had yielded just over two thousand kilograms of grain in total.

Perhaps it had something to do with not using chemical fertilizer.

On the other hand, it might also have been related to the seed breeding.

This yield ratio was simply too low to look at. After all, this crop had been planted by someone else. If his own crops only produced this much, then honestly, he might as well not plant anything.

Next year, he would experimentally plant one mu and test the waters.

Another reason why agricultural machinery was so underdeveloped occurred to him—there were no Internal Combustion Engines.

Or, to put it another way, there was no petroleum.

No matter what planet it was, as long as there was Organic Matter and the temperature was about right, whether one went by the theory of "formation in rock layers" or "accumulation of ancient organisms," there ought to be petroleum.

Could it be that the place he currently lived in was merely a shell constructed by Deities around the planet, which was why they had never found any petroleum?

This could become a future money-making opportunity.

He was currently in the rapid growth stage of his development. Spending too much time on retirement-style pursuits would be far too extravagant.

As he thought about it, balancing work and rest, perhaps he should build a small greenhouse in the front yard.

Hand-crafting a harvester was unrealistic, but using an electric drill and cutting machine to build a little glass greenhouse would be no problem at all. He just didn't know the prices. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too expensive.

No matter how far apart the time difference was, crop harvesting should still fall within a window of roughly one or two weeks. As for immediately planting the next season's crops, Sasuke planned to grow some forage grass, legumes, corn, and tubers—just enough to keep the land from sitting empty.

He promised Naruto that once all the rice and wheat had been harvested, he would treat him to a meal at BBQ Q.

Like him, Naruto had never been to BBQ Q. Not only was Naruto more enthusiastic than ever, but Sasuke himself was also looking forward to it.

He picked an utterly ordinary day that was neither a holiday nor a weekend. He didn't want to run into any classmates.

He didn't know whether the owner of BBQ Q discriminated against Naruto. In the anime, Naruto probably had never been there before joining Kakashi's Team, but whether the owner recognized Naruto was another matter.

Just in case, he specifically had Naruto use Transformation Jutsu. He changed his hair color, hid his whiskers, and didn't wear that iconic orange jacket.

The little restaurant was coated in Cooking Smoke everywhere, giving it a strong sense of age. It didn't even have an exhaust hood. He should have worn dirty clothes too.

The oily smell drifting over from other tables seemed to carry a faint hint of something wrong.

There was pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, and goose. The selection was surprisingly complete... but the prices were anything but pleasant.

There was also whatever wild game had been hunted, though the selection was inconsistent.

Naruto must have found it expensive too. He only chose cheap meats, but he ordered a whole lot at once.

The cheap meats were pork, chicken, and duck.

The moment the grill flames came up, it was more than just a little wrong!

There was a huge problem.

That sensation of being struck over the head was something he would remember clearly not just after one reincarnation, but even after ten.

The pork had a rank smell.

Cattle and sheep ate grass, so even if they weren't castrated, their distinctive gaminess was tolerable. When they were very fresh, it could even be called flavor. But pigs were different.

Even castrated pigs had a ten to twenty percent chance of retaining a lingering rank, stinky odor, like human body odor. To eat pork from an uncastrated pig without tasting that smell, either the eater's sense of taste and smell had failed, or the pig had to be some immortal being reincarnated into the mortal world for cultivation.

Japan had methods of raising pigs humanely without castrating them while still making the meat edible. He had heard the investment was comparable to raising Wagyu, treating pigs like honored elders.

In any case, ordinary farmers in the Naruto world could never manage things that way.

"Naruto, don't just order one kind. Since we're here, try the others too."

Naruto's eyes lit up.

"Then I won't hold back!"

Seeing Naruto prepare to really dig in, he could only remind him of one thing.

"Order only what you can eat. No wasting food!"

His heart was bleeding. After joining Kakashi's Team, Naruto would probably come back here a few times anyway, so he could treat this as avoiding a pitfall in advance. Then he remembered the pigs behind the farmhouse. He had found them too filthy to turn them over and inspect them carefully, only feeding them and roughly rinsing them with water from outside.

There was a ninety percent chance they hadn't been castrated either.

His food reserves—three pigs, probably weighing over half a ton altogether. He had been planning to smoke and cure the meat for the New Year, but now, if he couldn't eat it, everything else was out of the question.

Watching Naruto eat with such gusto, he felt utterly miserable.

"What, are you worried about the money?"

Yes, he was worried about the money, but how could he possibly say something that ruined his image so badly?

"I milled the rice you harvested before. Do you want to try some? I'll give you a few jin for free."

A hint of anticipation appeared on Naruto's face, but after thinking for a moment, he refused.

"I don't cook... It's such a hassle. Why don't I go to your house and you make it for me?"

"Then do you eat eggs? You can at least boil eggs, right? Once the water boils, cook them for five to seven minutes."

Naruto looked disgusted.

"That's so slow. You know, Instant Noodles only take three minutes before you can eat them, and you don't even have to wash a bowl afterward."

Not having to wash a bowl was far too real. He couldn't refute it, and he even somewhat agreed with Naruto.

"But you won't grow taller if you only eat Instant Noodles. You're shorter than the girls in class."

"I'm not that short! There are definitely people in class shorter than me! Besides, I drink milk every day."

Pfft.

He couldn't hold it in when he thought of Naruto's sour milk.

Though he had only laughed once, he was still the cool-faced handsome boy.

"What's so funny!"

"I thought of something happy."