Startup Capital

"Thank you so very much, Lord Menma..."

Hizashi Hyuga bowed deeply, his voice solemn, his heart filled with indescribable relief. At last, it was over. Not only had he survived, but he could see Neji again.

However, Naruto merely waved a hand. "Alright, I get it." He cut him off lazily. "Now that this matter has finally been settled, spare me the nonsense."

Hizashi froze for a moment, then a wry smile appeared on his lips. This man clearly possessed power capable of overturning the Ninja World, yet he did not care in the slightest about others' gratitude.

"Mm." He nodded. "Should you have any need of me, Hizashi Hyuga will serve without fear of death."

Naruto glanced at him. It seemed that even after creating an organization, he could still be a hands-off boss. But more than that, what pleased him was the system notification ringing out in his mind.

Ding!

Congratulations, Host: You have formed a bond with original character "Hizashi Hyuga" (Level 7) (Maxed)!

Points obtained: 150!

Ding!

Congratulations, Host: You have formed a Level 7 bond with original character "Neji Hyuga" (Maxed)!

Points obtained: 700!

It was already maxed out? It seemed this father and son's gratitude toward him had reached the point of "unyielding even unto death." A qualitative change? Could it go even further?

For example... making Neji his disciple in the future? Or simply having him join the Ashes organization?

Naruto now had 1,650 points again. He could do another ten-pull. But... did Level 7 mean their favorability was already maxed out?

He had only talked Neji into it a little, yet the kid's favorability had shot straight to the top, to the point where he was willing to give him his heart and soul?

...Ridiculous.

But thinking about it carefully, there really did seem to be similar examples in the Ninja World.

Kimimaro, for instance.

Orochimaru had merely fed him a bowl of inspirational nonsense, and Kimimaro had completely fallen for it. He had even been willing to become Orochimaru's new vessel, burning away his life as he fought until the very end.

So Neji's current loyalty to him was probably at that level?

Were people in the Ninja World really that easy to fool...

Still, compared to Neji, he cared more about another person's bond level.

Satsuki.

Her current bond level was 5, still two levels away from the maximum Level 7.

Level 5... what exactly did that mean?

The moment this question surfaced in his mind, the system immediately responded.

Satsuki Bond Level 5: She sees you as her dearest friend. Your existence has become an indispensable part of her life.

Current relationship: Deep trust, emotional dependence.

Development trend: With only the passage of time, this bond will naturally rise to a higher level—soulmate, or... love.

"..."

Naruto stared at the final two words and fell silent for a moment.

Love?

He could understand the first possibility. In the original story, Naruto and Sasuke had been that kind of friends whose bond transcended life and death. But the latter possibility...

Love? Satsuki... becoming his girlfriend?

His thoughts began to drift on their own. To be fair, Satsuki's looks were indeed flawless. Even after the gender swap, she still retained her status as the pinnacle of beauty.

And the current Satsuki had not experienced the massacre of her clan, so she was not as gloomy as in the original story. She merely had a somewhat adorable tsundere streak...

Having a girlfriend like that actually didn't sound bad...

...Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! When had he started having such dangerous thoughts? He clearly remembered that when he had first met Satsuki, his thought had been, It'd be nice if I had such a cute daughter in the future!

Something was wrong... This was definitely wrong... Could Indra's Chakra be affecting him?

"Lord Menma?"

Hizashi's puzzled voice pulled Naruto back to reality from his wild thoughts. Only then did he realize that he was acting strangely, and he quickly coughed twice to hide his embarrassment.

"...Ahem, it's nothing." Naruto swiftly switched back to a serious tone. "You understand my objective, right?"

"Yes." Hizashi lowered his head respectfully. "To deter every nation through force and prevent war from breaking out. Since Lord Menma wishes to establish an organization, may I ask how far along its development is?"

The air suddenly fell silent for several seconds.

"...If we count you," Naruto said in a slightly awkward tone, "Ashes currently has two members."

He awkwardly revealed this embarrassing fact. Yet Hizashi's expression did not change in the slightest. He merely nodded steadily.

"I see. Then does Lord Menma plan to establish a base first, or prioritize recruiting capable people?"

His tone was calm. Hizashi had already decided to offer his loyalty to Menma without reservation—without asking why and without counting the cost. That resolve had long been set.

Although Menma was a terrifying figure in the Ninja World, Hizashi had witnessed Menma arrange for him to meet his son. He knew very well that true flames of justice burned deep within this leader's heart.

As the younger brother of the Hyūga Clan head, Hizashi was quite experienced in management. Over the years, he and his elder brother had jointly handled affairs large and small within the Hyūga Clan. Calling him the clan head's right-hand man would not have been an exaggeration.

Thinking back on the past, the restraints of the Caged Bird had indeed left him resentful toward the Main Family. But toward his elder brother, the clan head, that resentment had never truly taken root.

Until Neji's birth changed everything.

When his exceptionally gifted son displayed astonishing talent, yet still had to be branded with the Caged Bird Curse Mark; when the clan head's daughter had only ordinary talent, yet was spared that humiliation because of her Main Family status—at that moment, the resentment he had suppressed for years finally broke through the soil.

He had accepted his fate as a Branch Family member. After all, his own talent was only at the level of an ordinary Jonin at best. But when he saw that Neji would have to repeat the same fate, the unwillingness he had endured for so many years finally erupted.

"I'll handle recruiting members. Leave construction of the base to you. As a neutral nation, the Land of Hot Water has loose intelligence controls and no ninja village of its own, so the Five Great Nations won't keep it under close watch. On top of that, its tourism industry is thriving and people come and go constantly. It's perfect for a base."

Naruto laid out his requirements one by one. "First, we need a legitimate public identity, preferably one that can use a legal business to cover our activities. Second, the main base must be concealed and easy to defend but difficult to attack. Can you do it?"

Hizashi nodded slightly. "I understand. I will do my utmost to complete Lord Menma's task."

The requirements seemed complicated, but they were not actually difficult to handle. As long as he did not expose Ashes' identity, Hizashi only needed to start a business in the Land of Hot Water under the guise of an ordinary merchant.

The real problem was funding. Naruto could not personally build the place, but he could not make Hizashi start from nothing either. So how much savings did Naruto have?

Five hundred thousand ryō. Most of it had come from the system lottery. It was barely enough for a down payment on a house in Konoha, but it was painfully insufficient as startup capital for an organization.

Thinking of this, Naruto regretted not extorting a sum from Hidden Cloud after severely injuring the Raikage. But he had just delivered that declaration meant to intimidate the Ninja World, and immediately asking for money afterward would have been too undignified. Besides, the trial card was about to expire...

However, aside from his savings, Naruto had other things he could turn into money.

Suddenly, with a soft pop, a piece of metal with a distinctive gleam appeared out of thin air on the table.

"This is..."

"Loot from before." Naruto spoke casually, tapping the metal's surface with his fingertip. "It should be worth some startup capital. What's the current market price?"

After leaning over to inspect it closely, Hizashi could not hide his surprise. "This is... Chakra Metal?" As a core member of the Hyūga Clan's Branch Family, he had only seen this rare material once at a major clan celebration. The gift presented then had been no more than the size of a thumb, while the piece before him was as large as half a palm.

Hizashi carefully picked up the metal and weighed it in his hand. "The current black-market price..." He paused. "One gram is worth roughly one hundred thousand ryō."

"One gram, one hundred thousand ryō... Hm?"

Wait, how much?!

Naruto's expression beneath his mask suddenly froze, and waves of shock surged through his heart. One hundred thousand per gram? Then the 1,500 grams he had stockpiled in his System Space were worth... 150 million ryō? That amount was enough to put four Asumas on the black-market bounty list!

Wasn't using Asuma as a unit of measurement a little too much?