Yamanaka Flower Shop

Konoha's real estate prices were surprisingly low. A storefront near the Hokage Building, in the area with the heaviest foot traffic, rented for only 1,000 taels per square meter per year.

One shop Kamiya Keiyun had his eye on had two floors and a total area of eighty square meters. The annual rent was only 80,000 taels!

But then Kamiya Keiyun thought about it. Konoha did not have a large population, and commerce was not particularly developed. It was basically still in the era of a small-scale agrarian economy, so shop rents naturally would not be expensive.

Yet that was actually illogical. Konoha's people might not have much productive capacity, but ninjas had money and strong spending power!

He had looked over the missions at the mission posting area. D-rank missions paid 5,000 to 50,000 taels, C-rank missions paid 30,000 to 100,000 taels, B-rank missions paid 80,000 to 200,000 taels, A-rank missions paid 150,000 to 1,000,000 taels, and S-rank missions paid over 1,000,000 taels.

Even a genin could accept missions. Although they could only take D-rank missions, those missions were not difficult. At most, one took five or six days; at least, one or two days.

Using four days as the average, they could take seven missions per month, earning 35,000 to 350,000 taels.

A team had four people. The captain took fifty percent, while the other fifty percent was split among the remaining three. That meant each genin could earn 6,000 to 60,000 taels a month!

Was that little?

Not at all. After graduating from the Ninja Academy, one became a genin, and genin were all kids around twelve years old!

And those genin did not keep doing D-rank missions forever. They did far more C-rank and B-rank missions, and their income rose tenfold upon tenfold!

In short, ninjas were an extremely high-income group. In modern society, Konoha would be an elite residential community, filled entirely with high-income residents—the kind ranked in the nation's top one percent!

It should at least have been on the level of the central CBDs of Beijing or Shanghai!

Yet the main commercial offerings in such an elite community were food.

All kinds of butcher shops, dessert shops, and ramen shops.

What a waste!

In an instant, Kamiya Keiyun thought of countless ways to drain the ninjas' wallets dry!

But after giving it further thought, most of those methods were not very feasible. They were either limited by the era or by his own abilities.

He needed something in his professional wheelhouse, executable, and easy to get started with.

"Huh, there's actually a flower shop here?" Kamiya Keiyun walked over.

Yamanaka Flower Shop. This was another shop run by a Konoha clan. Inside stood a pretty young girl with a golden ponytail, brimming with lively energy.

At the moment, she was boredly holding a book and reading.

He was very familiar with the cover. It was the very book Sanyō had recommended to him, supposedly extremely popular among girls: Fly.

"Are you two here to buy flowers?" Hearing someone enter, she immediately stood up and asked, "Are they for visiting relatives?"

"Visiting relatives?" Kamiya Keiyun froze for a moment. He looked around, then suddenly understood.

The damn flower shop was right next to Konoha Hospital!

No wonder. Why would a ninja village have a flower shop? Wouldn't it go out of business?

So that was it. This flower shop really had picked a good location.

"How much are these flowers?" Kamiya Keiyun asked, pointing at a white flower.

"Oh, this is a rare White Carnation. It symbolizes health and warmth, making it perfect as a gift when visiting patients!" the girl introduced. "They're 150 taels each."

One hundred and fifty taels seemed a little expensive.

"If I buy a lot, can you lower the price?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"Hm?" The blonde girl's eyes lit up. "How many do you want?"

"Hmm." Kamiya Keiyun thought for a moment. "One hundred thousand?"

"Uh..." The blonde girl froze, then looked at Sanyō. "Is this your little brother? He looks pretty clever!"

Sanyō was speechless. She understood. The girl thought Kamiya Keiyun was just being mischievous, and that Sanyō was the one who actually called the shots.

But she had gotten it completely wrong!

"He really is very smart!" Sanyō said. "Also, um, I only came with him. He has all the money, and he's the one in charge among us!"

"Huh?" The girl blinked, then looked at Kamiya Keiyun again.

The kid was pretty cute, but wasting her time when she was trying to do business was unforgivable. Still, since he had the money...

"Do you really want to buy one hundred thousand?" the girl asked seriously. "Look at our sign. I don't want to use the Yamanaka Clan's name to pressure you, but you should understand the consequences of joking around!"

"No!" Kamiya Keiyun shook his head.

"You!" The girl put her hands on her hips. "Are you messing with me?"

"No. What I mean is, one hundred thousand is only the beginning. If things go smoothly, one million, or even ten million flowers, may not be impossible!" Kamiya Keiyun said.

"Hm?" The girl's face completely darkened. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"I have money. Right here!" Kamiya Keiyun pulled the banknotes from his clothes and said, "I can't afford one hundred thousand, but I can afford fifty thousand. So you can rest assured, I'm not joking with you. I need several kinds of flowers as samples to test an idea. You can also go discuss it with your family and see whether you can supply quantities of one hundred thousand or one million!"

"Ah, this..." The blonde girl fell silent. She still thought the kid might be teasing her.

But the banknotes were real, and so was the child's mature demeanor.

"Oh, right, my name is Kamiya Keiyun!" Kamiya Keiyun said.

"Ah, ah, I'm Yamanaka Ayase!" the girl hurriedly said. "My aunt owns the shop, but she had something to do today, so I came to watch the store for her."

"You're a ninja?" Kamiya Keiyun noticed the forehead protector on Yamanaka Ayase's shoulder.

"Ah, yes, I'm a chunin!" Yamanaka Ayase nodded.

"Then I'll pick a few kinds of flowers. It would be best if you could also give me some flower seeds. Can you make that decision?" Kamiya Keiyun asked.

"Ah, y-yes." Yamanaka Ayase hurriedly said, "Which ones do you want?"

"A little of every kind," Kamiya Keiyun said.

"O-okay." Yamanaka Ayase hurriedly helped Kamiya Keiyun select flowers.

Half an hour later, she stood at the shop entrance and called out, "Please come again!"

Happily returning to her seat, Yamanaka Ayase picked up her book again. Yet her mind was a mess, and she could not read a single word.

"What's going on?" Yamanaka Ayase hesitated, feeling as if something was off.

"Ayase, did a big customer come by just now? I saw him leave carrying a lot of flowers. Why weren't those flowers wrapped?" A voice sounded from outside the door. Yamanaka Ayase looked up and saw her aunt, the wife of the Yamanaka Clan head, Yamanaka Mieko.

"Ah, ah!" Yamanaka Ayase remembered.

"He didn't pay!"

"Huh? What? What happened?" Yamanaka Mieko froze. The number of flowers those two children had just carried away was not small!

"I-I don't know..." Yamanaka Ayase began to doubt her life. I'm a chunin! Those two kids—Sanyō barely had any presence at all, and Kamiya Keiyun was just a little brat.

Why did I feel like I was facing my father when I was dealing with a little brat?

His presence was even greater than Father's!

"H-he said he had a big business deal he wanted to cooperate with us on, and wanted to take some flowers back to verify it..." Yamanaka Ayase explained softly.

"A big business deal? How big? There were precious varieties among the flowers he took. Their total value was nearly over 300,000 taels!" Yamanaka Mieko asked.

"Uh, he said it might involve one hundred thousand or one million flowers." Yamanaka Ayase continued in a tiny voice.

"If he were a jonin, that would be one thing. But he was just a little brat, and you believed that? Ayase, did missions make you stupid?" Yamanaka Mieko asked.

"Uh, should I get the money back?" Yamanaka Ayase tried to salvage the situation.

"Did he say when he would return?"

"Uh, one month from now."

"What's his name?"

"Kamiya Keiyun!"

Yamanaka Mieko shook her head. "Kamiya? I've never heard of such a clan. Don't go after the money yet. We'll wait and see after a month. After all, not just any stray cat or dog can take advantage of our Yamanaka Clan!"

"Uh, okay!" Yamanaka Ayase nodded, but when she thought of how calm that child had been...

A lie?

It did not seem like one at all.