Making Money

"Making money?" Kamiya Sanyō froze for a moment, not expecting her younger brother to ask that.

"Back in Quánqīng Town, we relied on offerings and donations from the villagers, as well as selling Omamori. But I've realized that the people in Konoha don't seem to believe in Inari—or any gods at all!" Sanyō replied.

The implication was that their old ways of making money would no longer work.

"I wasn't planning to sell those things anyway. How much could a single Omamori possibly sell for?" Kamiya Keiyun shook his head.

"The things in shortest supply in the village right now are, first, food; second, ninja tools; and third, all kinds of meat." After thinking for a moment, Sanyō added, "But our family can't make ninja tools, and we have no way of obtaining meat. As for food, we only have thirty mu of land, and it isn't harvest season yet. Even if we did harvest, Father controls the money!"

"Is there anywhere we could make money quickly?" Kamiya Keiyun asked. "Like a casino?"

"Uh, are you going to look for work at a casino?" Kamiya Sanyō shook her head. "But they probably don't hire children!"

Kamiya Keiyun was speechless. Why the hell would I be looking for a job? Who has time for that?

Besides, there was no way he would work for someone else. Not in this lifetime.

"Just tell me if there is one!" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"Uh, no. There aren't any in Konoha. The nearest town with casinos is Kiso County, more than twenty kilometers away from Konoha!" Sanyō answered.

"That far?" Kamiya Keiyun frowned. So he would have to leave the village, make money at a casino first, then buy the materials?

That could work, but he also wanted to improve their meals in Konoha. He could eat his fill now, but that was all. In truth, he had not yet made use of the Strengthened digestive system.

Once he used that method, his appetite would soar. And if he taught Sanyō, Ruri, and Hei Bei to do the same...

The Kamiya Family could certainly afford it, but the money they earned honestly was not even enough for Kamiya Hiromi to buy alcohol. So any money they spent would surely be money earned from selling off his sisters.

Spending that kind of money made Kamiya Keiyun sick!

"Can singing and dancing make money?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

He knew quite a few Japanese songs. Mainly because many Japanese songs had been covered; he might not remember the lyrics, but he remembered the melodies.

And with songs, you could just make up the lyrics. It was always the tune that carried the song.

"You mean being a songstress?" Sanyō shook her head. "Songstresses can only make money at the Singing and Dancing Pavilion. Konoha doesn't have one!"

Fine. It seemed the idol economy had not taken off here yet. Popular music as an art form had arrived a little too early for the ninja world.

Thinking about it, Kamiya Keiyun suddenly realized that there were surprisingly few ways for him to make money.

The main issue was that he had too little time. Quick, safe ways to make money were truly rare, and most of them were written right into the criminal code.

"Oh, right! You could write novels. I heard writing novels is very profitable!" Sanyō suddenly remembered. "My best friends are all reading a novel called Fly. I have a copy in my room too. I'll bring it to you!"

Sanyō hurried out. When she came back, she was holding a well-bound book with rather poor-quality paper.

The title was Fly, and the author was Kamiwano Nobuko.

"I heard this book has already sold four hundred thousand copies in the Land of Fire. Each copy costs one hundred and fifty ryō. If Ms. Nobuko gets fifteen ryō per copy, that's six million ryō in total!"

Kamiya Keiyun blinked. Right!

This era was roughly equivalent to the 1920s on Earth. There were no televisions or radios in this period, so people mainly relied on novels of all kinds for entertainment.

In his previous life, major novelists had largely been active during this era, and all sorts of literary classics had mostly been born around this time.

By the twenty-first century, web novels were certainly popular, and many authors were quite skilled, but it was already difficult to achieve the kind of influence that works like The Sherlock Holmes Series or The Three-Body Problem had once possessed.

The ninja world was much the same. No television, no radio—so entertainment naturally had to rely on novels. It was only natural that Fiction Authors made a great deal of money.

Writing novels being a dead end simply did not exist in this world!

Of course, that was assuming you wrote well!

"But I'm only five years old, and you're already urging me to write novels?" Kamiya Keiyun asked with a smile.

"Ah?" Sanyō froze. Right!

Her younger brother's mature behavior often made her overlook his age, but he really was only a five-year-old child.

Other five-year-olds were still playing with mud. Being sensible was already shocking enough, and now she wanted him to write novels...

Was she asking too much?

"Novels can be written, but not right now. Still, we can list it as an option!" Kamiya Keiyun would never underestimate novels. In fact, an outstanding novel could influence a generation, or even several generations.

Especially since novels could contain ideas. They were an exceptionally effective means of spreading concepts.

Take the spirit of chivalry, for example.

The novels of Gu Long and Jin Yong had influenced generations!

The sages of old did the same. Works of the Hundred Schools of Thought, such as Mencius, Han Feizi, and Liezi, contained countless stories, and the sages used those many stories to spread their own ideas.

Of course, some maggots also used stories to spread their ideas, such as washing a plate seven times or youth summer camps.

As the saying went, if you did not seize the ground of propaganda, the enemy would.

Rather than let others write nonsense, he might as well do it himself and turn this world into the way he wanted it to be. That way, his transmigration would not have been in vain!

"Well, that's all I know." Sanyō shook her head. When she chatted with her friends, they often talked about making money, but they never discussed the process—only the results.

For instance, so-and-so's husband had earned twenty million.

Or so-and-so had lost thirty million doing trade.

As for how they earned it, or why they lost it, no one cared.

Kamiya Keiyun stroked his chin and fell into thought.

Making money was nothing more than production and sales, buying low and selling high, investing technology for shares, reaching more people, and making more money...

Production and sales, or buying low and selling high, definitely did not suit him. As for investing technology for shares...

Kamiya Keiyun felt that the Mud to Stone technique was quite valuable. In his previous life, industries such as tunnel construction, pipeline construction, and brick factories would probably drool over a technique like this.

After all, excavating mountains for railways required tunnel-boring machines, was highly dangerous, and was terribly inefficient. Taking one or two years to dig through a mountain was common. But if ninjas did it, they might finish in a few months.

But the problem was that Kamiya Keiyun did not know whether this world already had such a technique!

I'm only a five-year-old kid. It would make no sense for me to casually think of something and create a technique that has never existed in the world before, right?

But what if?

What if?

If this technique truly did not exist, then if Kamiya Keiyun found someone who recognized its value and partnered with them to open a factory, wouldn't that have huge potential?

That person had better be rich enough to advance him part of the money. They had better have enough influence to protect the technology too—not necessarily monopolize it exclusively, but at least secure the greatest possible benefits.

They also had to be trustworthy and not deny knowing him after acquiring the technique. They also needed authority. Kamiya Keiyun did not want everyone to know that he had invented the technique, so it would be best if that person could claim it on his behalf!

Did such a person exist?

The first person Kamiya Keiyun thought of was Hatake Sakumo!

But he quickly shook his head. He and Hatake Sakumo had only met once, and merely arranged a fight.

He admitted that Hatake Sakumo seemed like a good person, but appearances could be deceiving. What if Sakumo turned his back on him when faced with enormous profits?

Especially since Hatake Sakumo came from a clan!

His actions would be constrained by the interests of his clan!

Rather than trust Hatake Sakumo, he might as well trust Snake Uncle!

After all, Snake Uncle's character had been vouched for by his roommate. For someone to have such an affectionate nickname, Kamiya Keiyun felt that he definitely could not be a bad person!