Time flew, and another six months passed. During those six months...
Tetsuya's branch successfully opened in the Capital City of the Land of Fire.
Opening day was quite lively, too. Tetsuya invited plenty of Konoha ninja to help draw a crowd.
A ramen shop backed by ninja immediately attracted plenty of attention in the Capital City.
Combined with its first-rate ramen, Chiba Ramen Shop became an overnight sensation.
Of course, as someone who had transmigrated, he had social savvy down to an art.
The day after the opening, Tetsuya sent the ramen shop's VIP Cards to all the major nobles in the Capital City and introduced a top-tier luxury ramen made specifically for them.
It might not have tasted much better than ordinary ramen, but none of that mattered. What mattered was the luxury, the exclusivity, and the hefty price tag.
What did these nobles want? To stand apart from everyone else, of course. To feel special.
He had originally thought he would need promotions and discounts to build a reputation during the new shop's early days, and he had prepared himself to lose money.
Instead, a few nobles came in and ordered Luxury Set Meals, and he turned a profit straight away.
As night fell, Tetsuya sat in his house in the Capital City, counting thick stacks of banknotes. His eyes practically turned into dollar signs.
"This is fantastic. These nobles really are filthy rich. Maybe I should just rob them. Why bother earning money? With my current strength, robbing a few nobles would be faster than anything else."
But after giving it a moment's thought, Tetsuya shook his head and abandoned the crazy idea.
He could not do that. These nobles were parasites sucking the common people dry.
If he stole their money, they would inevitably raise all sorts of taxes to recoup their losses quickly. In the end, the common people would still be the ones suffering.
If he did that, how would he be any different from those nobles who bled ordinary people dry? There would simply be an extra step: instead of exploiting the common people himself, he would be using the nobles to do it.
What would that make him? A Celestial Dragon from the world of One Piece? A noble above the nobles?
"Or maybe I should kill all these nobles. Wipe them out."
"No, that won't work either. The Shinobi World is already a ruin. If all the nobles were killed, the Land of Fire would probably be plunged into war the very next day."
Tetsuya sighed.
He knew that the nobles of the Five Great Nations and the Small Nations were all related to some extent. If he slaughtered all the nobles in the Land of Fire, the other countries would definitely invade in the name of revenge, then carve up this richest of lands.
When that happened, war would rage everywhere, and the same people would suffer in the end.
Tetsuya flopped onto his bed.
"Hashirama, why didn't you and Madara change the entire Shinobi World back then?"
[My dear master, do you want the power to change the Shinobi World?]
The moment Tetsuya heard that sleazy voice, all his wistfulness, compassion, and concern for the suffering of the Shinobi World vanished.
All that remained was his anger at Husky.
"You sleazy Doggo, what are you up to now? Trying to swindle me out of my money again? I'm telling you, my new shop just opened. I need money for everything."
[Oh, master, money is only a worldly possession. Don't you want to change the entire Shinobi World? Don't you think shaping it into the world you envision would be incredibly fulfilling?]
"..."
Tetsuya could not help rolling his eyes.
"Spit it out already. Cut the grandstanding."
[Oh, my dear master, getting stronger couldn't be easier! Draw cards!]
"Get lost."
[Don't be like that, dear master. Money is only a worldly possession. What good does keeping it do? Can it have babies?]
"Heh, you actually got that right. Money really can make more money."
In the end, after Husky's relentless wheedling, Tetsuya still spent some money.
This time, however, he did not spin the Wheel of Fortune. He drew Ninja Shards instead.
Because Tetsuya knew that if he truly wanted to accomplish something in the Shinobi World, or change anything, he could not do it alone.
Pain was a badass, wasn't he? He still had to establish the Akatsuki.
Six Paths Madara and Princess Kaguya were badasses, weren't they? They still got beaten.
Looking at Uchiha Izuna's shard collection progress sitting at thirty-seven percent, Tetsuya sighed.
"Only thirty-seven percent? No rush. I've got plenty of time. I'll just wait a little longer if I have to."
Business at the Ramen Shop kept booming, thanks to the early publicity and a little social finesse.
Chiba Ramen Shop made a name for itself in the Capital City, and even some people from elsewhere had heard of it.
After all, it was frequented by the Capital City's nobles, who brought Chiba Ramen Shop plenty of attention.
The nobles drew in wealthy merchants, the wealthy merchants drew in rich traveling traders, and those rich customers spread Chiba Ramen Shop's reputation even farther.
He had turned Chiba Ramen into a Luxury Brand through sheer effort.
Tetsuya seized the opportunity and kept expanding the shop, giving it lavish renovations.
As the shop grew, Tetsuya also began selling exquisite, high-end food besides ramen.
After all, when he had drawn the Cup Noodles production recipe and machinery, he had also drawn plenty of other things.
"Phew! This really is exhausting."
Looking at the hotel before him, Tetsuya wiped away some sweat.
Over the course of a year, Tetsuya had turned the Ramen Shop into the Chiba Grand Hotel through sheer effort.
He looked at the gleaming, opulent decor and the dignitaries coming and going. Even the hotel staff wore expensive clothes that ordinary people outside could scarcely imagine.
Tetsuya could only sigh at how fucking unfair this world was. The common people of the Shinobi World were still scratching a living from the soil, while these prestigious nobles in the Capital City spent enough on a single meal to keep an ordinary person alive for ages.
"Boss Chiba, you've just been sitting here all morning. How can you call that exhausting?"
The young man beside him voiced his confusion.
He gave Tetsuya a helpless look, then shook his head.
"Hehe, you can't put it like that, Izuna. Even just sitting here takes a lot out of me, you know.
Entertaining all those dignitaries and prestigious nobles takes a lot of brainpower, all right?"
Tetsuya stretched and leaned back in his luxurious rosewood chair.
"After all, if we make one careless mistake and fail to entertain these lords properly, or offend some noble, our hotel might have to close. We might even lose our heads."
Hearing Tetsuya's words, Izuna could not help feeling the corner of his eye twitch.
"Lose your head? Boss Chiba, I'm honestly a little curious. Who in the Shinobi World could possibly make you lose your head?"
Izuna felt rather helpless. Boss Chiba, the man who had pulled him out of the Pure Land and back into the Shinobi World, bringing him to life again, was absurdly powerful.
Yet he had none of the bearing of a powerful man. He always acted like a money-grubbing opportunist who fawned over the rich and powerful.
Honestly, if he had not fought Boss Chiba at least ten times and lost every match by half a move, he really would have thought the man before him was just an ordinary hotel owner.
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