Finally, He Could Eat His Fill!

What did that amount even mean?

His monthly allowance was only five hundred ryo. A million ryo... he would have to save for a hundred and sixty-six years.

No, even two hundred years of saving wouldn't get him there.

"Makoto..." Obito swallowed. "Th-that must be money someone hid there, right?"

"Probably."

"Then we can't take it!" Obito suddenly grew agitated. "It belongs to someone else! It could be some old man's life savings, or money someone needs to save a life! If we took it, wouldn't that make us thieves?"

Uchiha Makoto watched Obito's righteous indignation and sighed inwardly.

Obito really was an innocent, kindhearted boy at this age.

He helped old ladies cross the street, helped lost children find their mothers, and shared his lunch with stray cats.

Who could have imagined that, a dozen or so years later, this boy would become a boss who nearly destroyed the world?

"I never said I was going to take it."

Uchiha Makoto patted his shoulder. "I just found it and wanted to tell you. It's a lot of money, after all. Keeping it to myself was killing me."

Obito let out a relieved breath. "That's good. Makoto, we might be poor, but we can't do something like that."

"I know." Uchiha Makoto nodded. "I'm just curious... Obito, do you believe I really found that tree hollow?"

Obito hesitated.

Did he believe him?

Makoto never lied, at least not as far as he remembered.

Makoto had said he could develop Moving Iron Body, and he really had.

Makoto had said he would teach him Taijutsu, and he really had been teaching him diligently.

But a tree hollow hiding a million ryo?

That sounded far too much like something out of a storybook.

"I..." Obito scratched his head. "I believe you wouldn't lie to me, Makoto. But that tree hollow... maybe I'm just too dumb to picture it."

[Ding! Obito Uchiha's trust in your lie about discovering a tree hollow containing a million ryo: 50%. Manifestation level: 40%. Successfully manifested a tree hollow containing four hundred thousand ryo!]

It worked.

Only forty percent, but four hundred thousand ryo... that was enough.

Uchiha Makoto breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, but kept his expression unchanged. "Believe it or not. I wasn't planning to take it anyway."

"Yeah!" Obito nodded emphatically. "You're the most honest person there is, Makoto!"

Honest?

Uchiha Makoto smiled without answering.

Looking at Obito's innocent face, he suddenly felt a little guilty.

Wasn't exploiting such innocent trust to get money too despicable?

But then he reconsidered. If he starved to death now, who would stop Obito from turning evil? Who would change the fate of the Uchiha Clan Massacre?

This was a necessary evil.

Yes, it had to be.

"Oh, right, Obito." Uchiha Makoto changed the subject. "You said you could harden half your body now? Show me."

"Okay!"

After seeing Obito off, Uchiha Makoto went alone to the lower reaches of the Naka River.

There really was a Great Cedar Tree there, at least a hundred years old, with a trunk so thick it would take three people to encircle it.

Its roots twisted and tangled together, and the exposed sections formed a natural hollow.

Uchiha Makoto crouched and reached into a gap beneath the roots. His hand touched something soft inside.

He gave it a hard tug and pulled out a heavy cloth bag.

The bag was dark blue, made of thick fabric, and tied tightly shut with hemp cord.

He untied the cord and peered inside.

Stacks of banknotes, in denominations ranging from a hundred ryo to ten thousand ryo.

He made a rough count. Exactly four hundred thousand ryo.

He stood and brushed the dirt off his backside.

In the Naruto world, one ryo had roughly the purchasing power of ten yen in the real world.

Four hundred thousand ryo meant four million yen's worth of purchasing power.

"I can finally go eat some meat," he decided. "If I don't get enough nutrition while I'm growing, it'll be a problem if I end up short."

Uchiha Makoto had no intention of depriving himself.

Konoha's butcher shop was on the southern end of the shopping street. Its owner was a plump, middle-aged man named Tanaka, whose family had apparently been selling meat since his grandfather's generation.

When Uchiha Makoto approached the counter, Tanaka was chopping ribs.

Seeing that his customer was a child, he wiped his hands. "Buying meat, kid? How much do you want?"

"Beef," Uchiha Makoto said. "Two and a half kilos of your best cut."

Two and a half kilos of beef, wrapped in waxed paper, made one hefty package.

Uchiha Makoto held it in his hand and felt his arm trembling.

Not from fatigue, but from hunger.

He wanted nothing more than to gnaw on a piece raw, right then and there.

But he held back.

With the meat in hand, he went on to buy rice, vegetables, and seasonings.

By the time he had bought everything, the sun was nearly down.

Uchiha Makoto returned to the rundown house carrying bags of all sizes.

He set everything down, and the first thing he did was light a fire and start cooking.

He cut the beef into chunks and blanched it, then added oil to the pot and caramelized some sugar.

The beef went into the pot. He stir-fried it, added soy sauce, cooking wine, and spices, then finally poured in water and left it to simmer over low heat.

The aroma of meat gradually drifted out.

Uchiha Makoto stationed himself beside the pot, staring at the chunks of beef tumbling inside.

The broth bubbled away, the meat trembling in it as its color changed from bright red to a rich reddish brown.

He swallowed.

He picked up a piece of beef with his chopsticks, blew on it, and put it in his mouth.

Tender, savory, fragrant.

The juices burst in his mouth, mingling with the flavor of the spices before sliding down his throat.

Uchiha Makoto closed his eyes.

Delicious.

So delicious.

For the first time in the three months since he had arrived in this world, he was eating real meat.

Not minced meat, not meat broth, but substantial chunks of beef stewed until tender.

He took one bite after another, quickly emptying a bowl of meat.

Then he served himself another.

By the time he stopped, Uchiha Makoto was so full that he leaned against the wall and rubbed his stomach.

"Finally, I'm full!"

For the first time, the hunger that seemed to seep from his very bones had vanished.

In its place was a warm, satisfying fullness.

Lately, Uchiha Makoto had felt as though he was finally living like a human being.

Literally.

What kind of life had he been living before? Every day, he came home from training, cooked a pot of watery rice porridge, and ate it with two strips of pickled vegetables until he was practically green in the face.

During training, two laps left him panting and a couple of jumps wore him out. If the system hadn't kept him going, he would have starved to death in some forgotten corner of a training ground long ago.

But things were different now.

With four hundred thousand ryo in hand, he went to the butcher every morning for the freshest beef, ordered the most expensive set meal at a restaurant for lunch, and even had dessert in the evening.

After three days of eating like that, he felt as though he had a spring in his step.

And the change in his stamina was the most obvious of all.

In short, food and basic necessities were no longer a problem.

Then came the next problem.

Humans were creatures who started thinking about other things once their bellies were full.

Take Uchiha Makoto, for example. These days, whenever he came home after training and looked around the empty house, he wondered whether he should find some other entertainment.

So he turned his attention to school.

More precisely, to the girls in his class.