Kage: You Call This Guy the Savior?!

Not only was his wallet bulging, but he had also gained a generous and open-handed neighbor who invited him to Ichiraku Ramen every single day, and within a few days, they were already acting like brothers.

Where else could one find such a great meal ticket... no, such a great buddy!

Keiichi no longer avoided contact with Naruto. In the past, they had no intersection, and rashly approaching him would have aroused the suspicion of the Anbu.

Now that they were comrades-in-arms who had survived life and death together, it was only natural to interact more, right?

However, if you think treating someone to a meal is just about sucking up to the protagonist, you are dead wrong.

You have to spend money to make money!

"Naruto, what do you think is the most important thing for a ninja?"

Watching Naruto finish his third bowl of ramen, Keiichi asked as if it were a casual, offhand remark.

"Perseverance and hard work, of course!"

"Anything else?"

"Determination! Never giving up!"

"Nothing else?"

"Speak your mind! Do what you think!"

"Uh... that's not what I meant. Didn't you learn anything from our last mission?"

"Learn what?" Naruto slurped his noodles, his head full of question marks.

"Think about it, how did we, as mere Genin, manage to take down an enemy as powerful as Zabuza?"

"Wasn't it by taking advantage of his weakened state?"

"Be a little more tactful, would you!"

"Then it was by relying on our strength!"

"You don't have a shred of strength!" Keiichi rolled his eyes.

"Then what should I say?"

Looking at Naruto's blockheaded expression, it seemed that heuristic questioning wouldn't work; he had to be blunt.

"It's intelligence! It was because we obtained the intel that Zabuza was severely injured and hadn't recovered, and we found the location of his hideout, that we rookies were able to take him down. This just goes to show how important intelligence is!"

"Hmm, I guess that's true..." Naruto still seemed only half-convinced.

"So, would you say intelligence is valuable?"

"Of course it's valuable! I know many S-rank missions are just about gathering intelligence in other countries, how could it not be valuable?" Mentioning money immediately perked Naruto up.

"Then, if I told you I have a piece of intelligence in my hands right now that could help you pass the Chunin Exams, would you be willing to pay for it?" Keiichi's eyes narrowed into slits, looking exactly like the profiteer next door.

"This..." Naruto hesitated.

"Poor choice of friends," the owner of Ichiraku, who was boiling noodles nearby, couldn't help but sigh, as if talking to himself.

"Old man, have you ever heard of the Otsutsuki?" Keiichi turned his head to ask.

The owner's steady hand trembled slightly, but he immediately shook his head. "No, never heard of them."

"Good. Give Naruto another bowl!"

"Sigh..." The owner was successfully bought off.

"Keiichi, what exactly are you trying to do? You aren't trying to scam my money, are you?" The owner's warning had some effect; Naruto gripped his wallet tightly, looking at Keiichi as if he were a petty thief.

"Naruto, how confident are you about passing the Chunin Exams?"

"1000% confident, of course!"

"But aren't you worried that Sakura won't make it to Chunin? Once you're at different ranks, will you still be able to go on missions together?"

These words struck straight at his soul, and his hand clutching the wallet instantly loosened.

"If you give the intelligence I provide to Sakura, not only will it help her become a Chunin, but you'll also win her heart. Is there anything more cost-effective than that? What's a little bit of money compared to that?"

"Keiichi, you're absolutely right! I'll buy your intelligence! How much?" Naruto's eyes lit up, and he was convinced in an instant.

"It's not expensive, not expensive at all. Just 1,000 ryo."

"What?! It's that cheap?!" Naruto was stunned, then showed a moved expression. This was a true brother!

Then, he watched as Keiichi pulled a scroll from his bag and placed it in front of Naruto.

Naruto couldn't wait to pay the money and opened the scroll on the spot.

With a 'poof,' the items sealed inside the scroll dropped onto the table, revealing three cards.

Naruto picked them up and saw that each card corresponded to a ninja; two were from outside the village, and the other was a Leaf Village ninja.

The key was that the intelligence on these cards was incredibly detailed. It scored the ninjas across eight dimensions—Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Intelligence, Strength, Speed, Stamina, and Hand Seals—allowing one to see at a glance how strong a ninja was and what they excelled at.

Furthermore, there was a detailed analysis of their elemental affinities, the ninja tools they used, and points to watch out for.

The value of this intelligence far exceeded 1,000 ryo; even as stupid as Naruto was, he knew he had gotten a steal.

"How come there are only three people?" Naruto asked, puzzled after his initial excitement.

"Look at the number in the bottom right corner. There are one hundred and eight types of cards in total, and each Ninja Star Scroll contains three random cards. Whatever you pull is what you get."

Naruto didn't hesitate to buy another scroll. He opened it, and sure enough, there were three different character cards inside.

He recognized one of them immediately: his old classmate, Shikamaru Nara.

"Hey, hey, this guy's 'Intelligence' stat is actually a ten? That's just ridiculous!" Naruto felt the data was fake; he couldn't see how Shikamaru was supposed to be that smart.

"If you ever face him in the future, you'll know that this intel is as real as it gets."

"I still don't think he's that smart!" Naruto remained stubborn.

Heh, when you're using Shikamaru as an external brain in the future, please remember what you said today!

Naruto was getting hooked. He kept pulling out money to buy more scrolls. It was fine at first, but by the time he reached the tenth scroll, he noticed that character cards started to repeat.

However, the odds of duplicates weren't high, and he didn't feel like he was losing out, so he continued to spend money in handfuls to open packs.

By the time he pulled the last coin from his wallet, a look of confusion suddenly appeared in his eyes. He clutched a pile of cards to his chest, momentarily unsure if he had actually made a profit or taken a loss.

At this moment, Keiichi had already settled the bill with Naruto's money and left, feeling satisfied.

He left after the deed was done, hiding his merit and fame.

Heh, did you think I was just trying to swindle Naruto out of a bit of money?

Introducing the gacha mechanics of trashy mobile game companies to the ninja world—how much should I be rewarded for this level of chaotic modification?

Naruto looked left and right, only to find that Keiichi had long since vanished. He had no choice but to squat on a bench and sort through the cards he had unpacked.

It was then that he realized that even after opening over a hundred packs, he only had sixty-seven unique cards; the rest were all identical junk.

According to Keiichi, there were ten opponents he needed to pay the most attention to, all of whom were listed as SSR rank—the hardest to pull.

Among the cards he had collected, only Shikamaru Nara was an SSR. Most of the others were N or R rank, and there were barely any SR cards.

But that didn't matter. He believed that with just this information, it would be a huge help in passing the Chunin Exams!

So, he trotted off to find Sakura to claim credit, his mind already fantasizing about her being overjoyed and perhaps even falling for him because of it.

What if she wants to kiss me? That would be so embarrassing...

As Naruto fantasized, he walked to Sakura's front door, only to be told that she had gone to find Sasuke. His burning heart instantly turned cold.

Damn it, it's that guy Sasuke again!

What he didn't know was that Sakura was currently on her way to find Sasuke with a thick stack of cards to claim credit as well. However, when she saw Sasuke also carefully studying the cards in his hand, she froze in place. They stared at each other with wide eyes, the atmosphere becoming rather awkward.

"Did you buy these from Keiichi?"

"You too..."

"Yeah..."

"Yeah..."

Keiichi, you damn profiteer!

Chapter 30: Frenzied Pack Opening

In less than two days, the atmosphere throughout Konoha became exceptionally strange. The rate of friction incidents plummeted, and public order improved to the point where people no longer picked up lost items on the road.

There was no helping it; the people most prone to causing trouble were all immersed in the joy of opening packs. Who had time to stir up trouble?

Why were they intentionally creating friction in the first place?

Wasn't it because they wanted to secretly gauge the strength of Konoha's ninjas and gather more intel?

Now, there was no need to do that at all. One only needed to go to a ninja tool shop and buy these Ninja Star Scrolls for 1,500 ryo a pack to easily obtain the most detailed data on their competitors. Why wouldn't they do it?

You have to realize that according to current market rates, if you wanted to obtain intel on a specific examinee from a Ninja Scout, it would cost at least one hundred thousand ryo.

And now?

You might just pull the target examinee's card from a pack. That was far more cost-effective than hiring a Ninja Scout.

Of course, there were those with bad luck who might spend two or three hundred thousand ryo and still not pull their target's card, but they still felt it was a good deal.

After all, in the process of pulling cards, you could also pull cards of many other examinees. Isn't that still a profit?

As a result, the Ninja Scouts gathered in Konoha suddenly found themselves unemployed. No one was buying data from them anymore; their once-bustling doors were now completely deserted!

Their superiors expressed extreme dissatisfaction with their performance, and their very value was being called into question.

They soon discovered where the problem lay and grew to loathe the appearance of the Ninja Star Scrolls. Who on earth was the mastermind behind these little cards, and where were they digging up such highly classified intel?

These 'unemployed' individuals quickly joined forces, deciding to present a united front. They attempted to mobilize their family influence to stop the continued sale of the Ninja Star Scrolls.

However, they encountered massive resistance at the very first step, because behind these tiny Ninja Star Scrolls, more than a dozen prestigious ninja clans were involved. How could they possibly shake that?

If you can't beat them, join them. So, they came up with a plan that wasn't really a solution.

They decided to buy the Ninja Star Scrolls themselves, aggregate the intel within, and sell the information from the rarest SR and SSR cards at a high price. After all, the difficulty of pulling these two types of cards remained high, so they wouldn't have to worry about a lack of customers.

Once the intel from the cards was fully leaked, no one would buy them anymore, and they, the Ninja Scouts, would once again be Konoha's biggest information brokers.

However, once they put this into practice, they suddenly felt like they had been scammed. According to the numbering analysis, there were at least ten types of SSR cards, yet after opening a full ten thousand packs, they had only pulled five types. The intel on the remaining five people remained a complete blank.

The key was that these five people were all top-tier seeds, the ones receiving the most attention, yet the intel they had on them was pitifully scarce.

Damn it, there must be something wrong with these drop rates!

In this way, even if they wanted to act as middlemen, it was no longer possible. To uncover the intel on the remaining five individuals, everyone would only become more eager to open packs.

Furthermore, they had to hold their noses and keep buying, or else wouldn't their previous investments go down the drain?

"Dammit, Desert Scavenger King? What kind of ghost title is this? Is the Leaf Village looking down on me?" When Kankuro finally pulled his own card after spending countless money, he slammed it onto the ground, furious.

Kankuro had been quite looking forward to what his title would be, but when he actually saw it, he became exasperated.

"Aren't I in the same boat? Iron Fan Princess... Nonsense, my fan is clearly made of paper!" Temari's expression was ugly as she revealed the card she had just pulled.

Indeed, no one was indifferent to their own title, which was exactly why the Ninja Star Scrolls were selling like wildfire.

In the past, only those Jonin who had made a name for themselves traveling the ninja world could earn a title; if you were just a Genin, who would even know you?

But ever since the Ninja Star Scrolls hit the market, everyone suddenly realized that it seemed possible to obtain a title without having to struggle or strive—after all, as long as the word spreads, isn't that enough?

This way, as long as I get promoted to an official Jonin one day, wouldn't I instantly transform into an elite Jonin?

Every nation was paying attention to this year's Chunin Exams, and now that these little cards had become such a hot commodity, one could say that even before it had begun, everyone already had a certain degree of fame.

The contestants in the SSR tier, in particular, were attracting everyone's gaze.

"I just wonder what kind of title Gaara will get."

"Although the titles are a bit ugly, the person who made these cards has some vision. I heard that the Ninja Scouts have created a specific numbering system where each number corresponds to a candidate. Currently, there are only four SSR-level cards whose corresponding candidates remain unknown, but Gaara is definitely one of them."

Glancing at the expressionless Gaara, Kankuro said with a sense of pride, "That goes without saying. If you ask me, Gaara should be in a tier of his own. No matter who it is, they couldn't possibly be his opponent!"

"Kankuro, what I am truly concerned about is that among the six SSR candidates revealed so far, besides the two of us, the Leaf Village occupies four spots. I suspect this might very well be a conspiracy by the Leaf Village!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Have you forgotten the purpose of our trip here? It is to give the Leaf Village a wake-up call and knock the high-and-mighty Leaf Village down into the dust. But with these little cards coming out, the Leaf Village occupies the majority, as if they are deliberately creating an atmosphere that the Leaf Village is still the head of the Five Great Ninja Villages."