Chapter 21: The Card System

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other references mentioned in this fanfic.

A/N: He all. I apologize for the lack of chapters recently. It's been a busy month for me, but I promise to start butting announcements on my profile if I'm taking a leave.

I want to thank all of you who messaged me if I was okay, I really appreciate the concern. Besides a small stomach ache I am completely fine.

Anyways enough about that, here the new chapter.

Chapter 21

(Time skip: 1 month)

"-what a silly notion. You are by far the prettiest girl in that building," Kenji said.

"Hahaha, Ken-chan you are such a charmer. I should be careful, I just might fall for you."

"Then I would take that as my life's greatest accomplishment."

"Hoho, you will be quite the lady killer when you grow up. Make sure to visit me and the girls when you have the time. They have been asking about you."

Kenji smiled at the offer, "I will be sure to do that Madam, until then."

Kenji watched the hulking transvestite go down the stairs to the lower floors.

The person who had just left was Madam Ruby, the 'Matriarch' of the Leaf Village's most popular and exclusive brothel, the Ruby Palace.

It could be said that it was the gemstone of the Leaf's underworld, with all manner of men gather there to enjoy their fill of beauties that tantalized the male fantasy. It was said that a single night with one of their flower girls would set you back a paycheck but leave you smiling for the rest of the week. The top 5 girls, nicknamed the Heaven's Sins, were the best of the best in the village. As such this gave them the ability to be picky with their clientele with the only way that someone would be able to worm their way into their bed was if you either fit their individual taste or had their respective tokens. These tokens themselves were something that couldn't be bought with money and were only given on rare occasion by the brothel's owner, Madam Ruby.

Madam Ruby was also famous, or rather infamous around the village. He was a tall man standing at 6'4'' with thick muscles, light blue hair done in a traditional geisha hairstyle and a blue chin. He wore extravagant female kimonos and some light makeup making him look even scarier. Rumor was that he used to be a rather scary shinobi during the Second Shinobi War before retiring to open his brothel.

Kenji supposed that was still true, just in a different way.

Still he had come to consider the large crossdressing man as a close friend and the reason for that goes back to the time before Kenji had become a genin.

Back when he was just learning medical jutsu, he had needed patients to practice on. So he would disguise himself and make regular trips to the Red-light district after school and look for people that were in need of help.

It was small at first, just healing a scrape here, a bruise there, but as time went on, he started to see that he had a natural talent for healing on account of his perfect chakra control. So, using Hana, he was able to get more medical scrolls, and learn more advanced techniques. By that time, his alias had started to be spread among the district, and he would sometimes be requested to heal someone for a prize.

It was during one of his visits that he had been approached by Madam Ruby.

As it turned out, one of her girls had gotten sick, and the civilian doctor they had hired had been unable to do anything. Hiring a shinobi doctor was expensive too, almost 4 times what a normal doctor would cost, and the girl in question didn't have that much money on hand. Madam Ruby had gladly offered to loan her the money, but he first wanted to go to the little doctor that everyone had been talking about and save her the money if possible.

Kenji's skill at the time were rather lacking, and all he could really do was diagnose her. She had contracted an STD, probably from one of the brothels customers.

Things like this were frequent in this line of work after all, so it wasn't much or a surprise to Kenji. However, the same could not be said for those that were affected.

Madam Ruby as the owner, would be forced to let the girl go, before rumors of disease in her establishment could formed. The girl on the other hand would have to find a new line of work or go to a less reputable brothel that would accept her.

The two had looked so sad at what would have to happen.

Just as all hope seemed to be lost, Kenji appeared like a knight in shining armor, however this armor was black instead or silver.

Although Kenji's medical ninjutsu wasn't up to par yet, he did have something that were almost as good. His pills and elixirs to be exact.

He had a number of them that still needed testing, so he had offered to heal her if she agreed to be his guinea pig.

Since they couldn't go to a doctor in fear of the truth getting out, they had no choice but to agree.

With potions and pills, he was able to heal the girl in only an hour. She appeared healthier than ever before too.

Madam Ruby was so impressed with the result that she had asked Kenji to run tests on all of her girls. Kenji gladly agreed… for a price of course.

Ever since then, Madam Ruby and the Ruby Palace had been Kenji's allies. They had become a sort of information network for him, as well as helpers when he needed to find certain items.

This wasn't one sided either. With Kenji's help Madam Ruby was able to gain a foothold in the red-light district and had even been able to claim 32% of the territory away from the yakuza families and drug dealers and establish himself as one of the underworld's secret bosses.

He had given Kenji a large number of tokens and coupons to his brothel as compensation, something that the small boy used to bribe certain individuals when he needed to grease the wheels as it were.

Another reason why Kenji liked Madam Ruby, despite his quirk personality, was because they were huge spender.

It came as no surprise however, Madam Ruby had control of over a number of sister-brothels, gambling dens, and loan agencies. It was only logical to assume that he had accumulated a rather sizable wealth. He was perhaps the best customer that Kenji had in the village, with the Ruby Palace being the main buyer for elixirs, as evidence of the 1,200,000 ryo in Kenji's pocket. There was even talk of opening a sister branch in the Capital.

"Hm. Looks like it's going to be a slow day again," Kenji said as looked at the empty floor.

Currently he was on the fourth floor of his shop, a place that only a few people had access to.

While Moon Artifacts appeared as two-story shop on the outside, in reality it had a total of eight floors including the ground floor, with the top floor being his bedroom. It was his room that people saw from the outside with all of the other floors stuck somewhere in the middle, something that was only possible thanks to the shops magical space shifting ability. Not to say that it came cheap however as the modifications to the shop came close to 50,000 chakra points in total, with more plans to add underground floors.

There were seven levels of clearance in total: White, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Ruby, Emerald, and Ebony.

The higher your clearance the higher you could climb up.

White was the basic card that all customers received after they passed the initial screening. Without one they couldn't even enter his property as he had painstakingly erected a stone wall around all 6 acres of his land, and lined it with different talisman and seals. The card would let them enter his shop and buy from the ground floor.

Once they reached a certain number of spending points, then they were automatically given a Bronze Card that let them buy things on the second floor, which had upgraded items like tools, clothes, and simple medicines.

The Silver Card allowed them to go to the third floor, where they could buy low-mid Human grade artifacts as well as basic elixirs and pills.

The Gold Card did the same as the silver, except they could now buy high-human grade artifacts and participate in the Moon Artifact's famed Auction House that was conducted every two months.

Ruby, did the same as the previous cards but with the added benefit of buying Earth grade artifacts and receiving a catalog of the shop's full list of items.

Emerald allowed them to buy High-Earth artifacts and be allowed to attend the unveiling of the shop's newest line of products.

And last but certainly not least, was the Ebony Card. With this card, one would be able to call upon the full power of Moon Artifacts and all it's resources. Only two cards were ever made thus far, one for the Fire Daimyo and the other for the Third Hokage.

There were no Emerald cards currently made, but here were two Ruby cards in the village, that belonged to Gai and Madam Ruby respectively. They were due to the respect Kenji felt for them, despite neither one of them having reached even a fraction of the points required to reach that level. There might be more outside of the village, since Kenji had given the Daimyo a handful of Ruby cards to give to those, he felt deserved them.

Only three people had managed to achieve gold status, Tsume Inuzuka, Haiashi Hyuga, and Civilian Councilman Ogui Takebane. Tsume would have been a Ruby member, but she had suckered Kenji into taking the role of Leader of the C.B.A. so she got demoted.

Currently the first two levels were the most frequented with the third being rarely used, although that was sure to change as time went by.

As such It was no wonder why Kenji rarely got customers on his floor.

"Well, I suppose this gives me enough time to work on my latest project," the small boy suddenly proclaimed as he reached under the counter to retrieve a block of wood and a knife.

Wood Carver's Knife +10

Quality: Low-Human

Attack: 120

+340

10+: Woodcarving become 100% percent faster.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 40

Taking the knife, his hands blurred into action with wooden shaving flying though the air. Yet despite the fast movements each stroke was done with expert precision.

In less than a minute, Kenji had a realistic looking hand made of wood. He brought it close to his bandaged eyes and looked for any flaws, but just like every other time, he found none.

"Eh, good enough," he said with a shrug and dropped it into a bin filled with other wooden parts.

He was just about to get another block of wood when someone came running up the stairs.

A blonde girl with two pigtails and rectangular glasses dressed in a long Chinese dress, that showed plenty of leg.

"Yo, Tsubaki, watcha doing here? Shouldn't you be in charge of the cash register on the first floor?" the small boy greeted his ex-captain and current employee.

After the event of the exam, almost everyone that was present during the final battle was made into a genin. The tester's reasoning was 'If they still want to be shinobi after experiencing that, then they are obviously qualified to be genin/fodder.' Kenji's team had obviously been the most sought-after people after everything was done and the departments were quick to scoop them up.

Of course, there were those that had declined the offer after they had experience that traumatic experience, and just like Kenji promised, he had offered them jobs at his shop (after an extensive screening of course). They mostly worked on the first two floors which were the busiest, while his clones worked on the other floors.

Tsubaki had been the only one that hadn't made the cut. No surprise there, since she did betray their side for her fiancé.

While it might have been an act born of love, there was no denying that had it been an actual war, many of them would have ended up dead thanks to her mistake. Not many shinobi were willing to trust such a person after all, so she lost any chance of ever being a shinobi.

That however was neither here or there, after Kenji had gotten out of prison, she had come to him and apologized for her past behavior. Kenji forgave her, after all he did use her for his plan too. Combined with him turning her into a glass statue and they were pretty much even so he offered her a job at his shop as a cashier.

He used ninshu on her just to make sure she had no intentions on betraying him later.

"There is something that requires your attention outside, Boss," Tsubaki said in a respectful tone.

Putting away the carving knife Kenji got out of his elevated stool and walked around the semi-circular counter.

"Eh? It better not be those pesky charity people asking for donations again. I thought I made it very clear that I want you to use all necessary and unnecessary force to get them off my-"

"It's not them, Boss. One of the C.B.A. teams is making a ruckus, it is disturbing the customers. They appear to be injured."

"What? Is that it?"

"One of them looks to be missing their right arm?"

"So?"

"…They're spilling blood all over the floor board."

"What!? Don't they know how hard it is to get blood out of hardwood?" Kenji said in a panic.

He took out a slip of paper from his sleeve, then he crossed his fingers in a familiar cross seal.

Shikigami Talisman

Quality: Mid-human

+ Can create a doll servant.

Chakra points Needed to Upgrade: 100

The paper exploded into white smoke and out appeared an identical copy of Kenji.

However, unlike the normal clones created by the technique, these didn't get dispelled after a single hit. The amount of hits it could take depended on how much chakra it had, as any damage would lower it slightly until it collapsed into itself.

"I'll watch this floor, Boss," the clone said as he went to sit on the stool.

Kenji loved that all his clones knew exactly what he wanted. He tossed it a spare spatial ring, with some armor and weapons inside just to be safe.

Then he Body Flickered to the bottom floor.

"Hey! Hey! What's with all this dying I'm hearing about. I don't remember giving anyone permission to do that in my shop!" he shouted as he scanned the crowd and saw a trio of battered shinobi over a fallen man that was missing one arm and bleeding all over his freshly waxed floor. His eyes narrowed behind his bandages.

(Scene Change)

"Waahhaa!"

Four people were sent flying out of the front door, landing in a groaning pile in front of the shop.

Kenji walked out dusting his hands and turned to yell something behind him, "Oi, someone clean up that blood! People could slip and fall! Last thing we want is a lawsuit, it would be bad for business!"

The small boy turned to the four and crossed his arms, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

One of the men, probably the leader, bowed in front of him with his head touching the ground, "Please, Boss! You have to help our friend!"

Kenji frowned in response, "Why?"

"His arm got torn off by a chakra beast!" the man pleaded.

"So? This is a shop not a hospital," now that he was looking at the boy with the missing arm, he saw that he was unnaturally pale.

"He lost a lot of blood on the way here and we also think he might be poisoned. We know you sell antidotes for some of the poisons from the chakra beast?"

'Well my shop is technically closer than hospital,' the small boy thought. His land was located right next to the wall, while the hospital was on the other side of the village.

"Then you could have bought the antidote without causing such a ruckus?"

"We can't, neither of us has a high enough card to buy the antidote," the only girl from the group interrupted.

"Hmm, that is a problem," Kenji said in a thoughtful tone. The kid looked young too, about 13 years old.

"Can you please help!?" they said bow to him, all except the injured boy who was too busy bleeding to death.

The small merchant rubbed the back of his neck, "Well I suppose…"

The group looked up with hope in their eyes, "Does that mean you will help us?"

Kenji sighed and nodded painting a thumb behind him, "Sure, I have a few coffins in the back?"

That hope shattered into dust before being blown by a passing gust of wind.

"You are just going to let him die!" shouted the leader as he jumped to his feet.

Kenji gained a tick mark, "Well what did you expect! This is a shop, not a charity! If you can't buy it then it's not my problem!"

"Don't you feel even a little compassion! Do you even have a heart!"

"Of course I have a heart! I have plenty, they're 30,000 ryo for anyone looking to buy!" That was mostly true, as he grew different organs for the hospital using his Yang Seal and donor samples.

"You black hearted monster!" the injured boy said with a glare.

"How rude. I'll have you know my heart isn't black. It's simply gold plated," Kenji said returning the glare.

The girl burst into tears, "P-please help?"

Her tears had no affect on Kenji, but he was getting tired of this. This wasn't the first time someone would try to use emotions and a sob story to gain access to a higher floor. In fact, this was the 13th attempt just this week.

"Fine, can you at least tell me what chakra beast it was?" he said while massaging his temples.

"Y-yes," the girl stuttered a response as she unstrapped a large sealing scroll from her back and open it.

A large plum of smoke covered the area, but Kenji could already see what the chakra beast was, and despite himself he felt impressed.

"A Stone Rhino huh?" he said as he walked closer to the huge armored beast. It weighed close to 15 tons and was at least two stories tall, with a one large 6 ft horn on its nose. It had segmented stone plates growing on it's skin that covered it in a protective armor. It was the very definition of an armored tank, with its only weak spot being its insides.

"Alright, which one of you has the highest card," he asked them.

The leader took out a bronze card from his pocket, "I do!" He ran over to Kenji and handed it over.

Kenji took a glance at the bronze card. It was the size of a credit card and showed the basic information of the owner.

Momotaro Mikoshiba

ID: 000078

Type: Bronze

Ryo Balance: 3,490

However, his eyes scanned for something only he could see. 'This guy doesn't even have a fraction of the points needed to advance to the next level. Still? To be able to take down a Stone Rhino with just four people, it would be a shame to lose them so soon…'

"I see… I'll tell you what I can do," Kenji said as he began to walk around the large beast, inspecting it from every angle, "If you sell me the body of the chakra beast, I'm willing to give you a one-time pass to the third floor-"

"Thank you!" the leader said as he gave a bow.

"Don't thank me yet," Kenji said seriously, "Do you happen to still have the arm by any chance?"

The shock their heads sadly, "No, the rhino ate it after ripped it off."

'Well that sucks, the Limb Regrowing Elixir can only be purchased on the 5th floor. Hmmm? Maybe?' the small merchant thought as he turned to the large animal carcass that was blocking the road to this shop.

"First things first," he muttered under his breath as he walked up to it and grabbed the horn in both his arms. Channeling chakra into his muscles he grunted, digging his feet on the ground as he pulled with all his might.

"Huaaa!"

The group that were watching felt their jaws drop as they say the small boy lift the giant animal off the ground and swing it by its horn.

Kenji let go, and the large body went soaring through the air, landing 30 ft away.

Rolling up his sleeves, he walked closer to it, and took out a beautiful Chinese cleaver from his space ring. The rectangular blade was a silver-grey color. The handle was a black painted wood with a picture of a golden dragon wrapped around it.

Dismantling Cleaver +11

Quality: Mid-Human

Attack: 600

+500

10+: Dismantling dead bodies becomes 200% easier.

Chakra Points Needed to Upgrade: 340

Taking the cleaver, Kenji placed it gently on the beast's armored belly. Then he ran the edge of the blade all the way across. The armored plates were sliced way as if made out of tofu.

"No way!"

"H-how-"

"All of our kunai bounced clean off it's scales, how did he?"

Kenji ignored the background chatter as he located the stomach and split it open using the knife, then reached a hand inside. He searched inside the stomach's contents, until he felt something. "Aha!"

Kenji held up the disembodied arm above him as if it was some sort of great prize. The arm itself looked relatively fine except for it being covered in stomach acid and predigested muck.

He threw the arm toward the leader, who caught it with a disgusted face.

Kenji then took out a hand towel to clean his hands before retrieving the boy's bronze card. He swiped his finger across the surface and did a hand seal.

The card changed.

Momotaro Mikoshiba

ID: 000078

Type: Bronze

Ryo Balance: 53,490

"There. I added the amount for the Stone Triceratops, which is 50,000 Ryo. I'll right a note, show it to one of the girls in the counter, they will take you to the 3rd floor. Once there ask for a Tissue Reattachment Potion and a Minor Healing Elixir. The total should be 40,000. Now go, your friend looks like he is about to kneel over any second," Kenji said flicking the card back to the man.

"Thank you!" they shouted as they ran back to the shop.

Kenji ignored them, as he took the cleaver again, "Well, seeing as I'm already here, I might as well just finish dismantling it."

(Scene change)

"Anko, are you sure you're okay," asked a worried Kurenai.

Across the table, Anko looked up from her booklet, a pen in her hand, "Huh? Why do you say that?"

The red-eyed kunoichi crossed her arms, "Well I've been trying to get your attention for the past 5 minutes. You haven't even touched the dango on your plate."

"What the- When did these get here," Anko said in a surprised tone as she saw a plate with untouched dango.

"What are you even reading," Kurenai said as she tried to take a peek, but the purple haired woman closed the book with a snap.

Putting the book away, the snake mistress puffed up her chest causing her breasts to bounce once, "Sorry, babe, but it is strictly confidential."

Raising an eyebrow Kurenai responded, "Confidential huh? Then I guess you can pay for your own dango."

She made a motion to reach for the dango only for Anko to pull them closer to her and hiss at her like a scorned cat.

Kurenai didn't look impressed however as she flicked her friend's forehead.

"Ow! Meanie," the purple haired woman complained as she rubbed her forehead.

"Fine, keep your secrets," the Genjutsu Mistress said with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey! Do you want to head to the Moon Artifacts, I have somethings I need to buy there," Anko offered as she began shoving dango into her mouth.

"First of all, don't talk with your mouth full, it's disgusting. Second, Moon Artifacts, isn't that the shop owned by that Noble kid?" Kurenai asked. In truth she had been meaning to go there for some time now as she had heard quite a few good things about it, but things kept coming up, so she had been putting it off.

Swallowing the dango Anko took a large gulp of tea and continued, "Ahhh. That hit the spot. But yeah, I finally have enough money, so I wanted to browse for a bit. Wanna come."

"I suppose I have nothing else to do today."

"Cool, you'll love it," she said with a grin.

After paying for the food they made their way out of the shopping district and onto an old beaten path that cut right though the farming land. The amount produced inside of the village although wasn't much it was at least enough to feed all of the citizens for at least a couple of days if there was ever a siege.

They found their intended destination relatively quickly, as it contrasted greatly with the surrounding area.

A 12ft high stone wall could be seen encompassing a large area of the land. It had a large entrance made entirely of wood with two large doors acting as the only gates.

There was a small stand built into the wall where a small blindfolded boy could be seen reading a book.

The two women made their way to the counter.

"Hey there Boss," Anko greeted the shadow clone, "Slow day?"

"Mitarashi," the clone said as they closed their book, "Hmm? You brought someone new?"

Anko wrapped one arm around Kurenai's shoulder, "Yep, this is my friend, Kurenai."

"It's good to have friends," the clone said with a pleasant smile. "I take it you want to apply for a membership?"

"Yes, that is correct," the raven-haired woman said as she got out of the one-armed hug.

"Okay," he said as he took out an application form from under the desk, "Just fill this out and I'm going to need some form of identification."

"Will my shinobi license work?"

"Yes, it will."

She took the paper and read over it carefully, before taking the offered pen and signing it.

"There."

"Perfect, then I just need the 500 Ryo application fee and your license."

"Don't worry Kurenai, I got this," Anko offered as she took five 100 Ryo bills from her wallet and slapped them on the counter.

"…Please don't do that," the clone said.

"Sorry."

After verifying that the license did belong to her, the clone took out a box. Opening it, he took out a thick card that looked to be made out of a solid plate of iron.

"I'm going to need a drop of your blood to activate it," Kenji said as he took out a ceremonial looking dagger from his sleeve.

Kurenai looked hesitant, but with Anko's urging, she sliced her thumb and let a single drop of blood fall on the card.

Kenji held up a hand sign and the blood seeped into the metal turning it white with black ink appearing on the surface to show some basic information.

Kurenai Yuhi

ID: 000243

Type: White

Ryo Balance: 0

The clone handed the newly activated card to the red-eyed woman, "Here, this will help you pass through the gate. I hope you enjoy our shop."

"Come on, were burning daylight," Anko exclaimed as she started pulling her friend in the direction of the wooden gate.

"Anko, wait!"

"No time for that," the Snake Mistress said as she rushed at the obviously closed door without a hint of stopping. Just as it looked like they would crash, something unbelievable happened, they passed through the gate as if was just an illusion.

"Wha-" Kurenai said with wide eyes as she turned back to look the very real looking gate, "How- Did we just-"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool right, I thought it was genjutsu at first too, but the gate is real enough," Anko explained.

Kurenai looked around her and felt a sense of tranquility settle inside her as she took in the calming scene in front of her.

A stone path lead to a charming two-story building that had a large sign with the shops name on it. The grass was a vibrant green that looked to be freshly cut. There were a cluster of weeping willows and sakura trees placed around randomly with exotic looking flowers growing under their shade. She saw as a family of rabbits scampered around the grounds freely and even spotted a koi pond a little way off.

"It's very… peaceful," she said trying to find the right words.

Anko who was already used to it shrugged, "I suppose, but enough sightseeing. Come on."

As they walked on the man made path Kurenai saw a mob of little white beings running around. They were 2 feet in height and looked to be made out of marshmallow, a blocky body and square heads without necks. They lacked any features that one could find in a living creature. The closest thing she could compare them too, was as if someone had taken a human shaped cookie cuter and used it on a block of tofu. Yet despite not having faces or fingers they were carrying different tools in their arm stumps and wearing yellow hard hats.

"Those are the shop's boss, calls them shikigami. They're cute to look at, just don't try biting them, despite their looks they are pretty strong and they tend to group together," Anko explained, "I learned that the hard way."

Her friend looked at her questioningly, "What? Why would you-"

"I thought they were made of dango," she grumbled, trying to not remember the memory of being body tackled by twenty of those little guys.

They watched as the shikigami walked to the large corpse on the lawn where others of its kind were dismantling it with tools, using rope and make shift platforms to reach the higher places.

"They kind of look like ants," Kurenai said watched their perfect teamwork as they reach the shop's entrance.

They opened the door and walked inside. Kurenai was once more amazed by the total change in scenery.

The inside looked like a small department store, split into different sections. There were books, clothes, camping tools, even pet toys and at the very back was a semi-circular counter with four girls in Chinese style dresses attending a line of customers.

"Oi Kurenai, stop spacing out?"

"Huh? Hmph, I wasn't spacing out," she said with an embarrassed pout, "It's just a lot bigger on the inside. Do you know how they did it?"

Anko shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, seals? Magic? Who cares?"

However instead of going right in, they headed to another counter that looked to be built into the wall with another clone smiling at them.

"Good Afternoon, how may I help you today?" the Kenji clone asked in a pleasant tone.

Anko took out a leather pouch from 'somewhere' and opened it, dumping the contents on the counter. The small pouch was obviously special as it was able to hold more than it should be possible, as evidence to the large pile of herbs.

"I'm looking to donate," she said confidently as she handed her bronze colored card over.

The clone separated the herbs and wrote everything down a separate piece of paper, "Let's see, the total comes out to 3,200 points. Do you wish to proceed?"

"Yes?"

"Very well, your donation will be added to your card. Congratulations, you have reached the amount of points required to reach the next level. Your clearance is now Silver. You may buy items from the third floor," the clone said as he went through some hand signs and the bronze card turned silver.

Anko Mitarashi*

ID: 000025

Type: Silver

Ryo Balance: 178,370

Anko took the card and held it up like some sort of prize, "Yes! I can finally go up to the third floor!"

Kurenai didn't know what was happening so she had to ask, "I don't understand, is that a big deal?"

The clone chose to enlighten her, "I suppose you can say that. Please allow me to explain? In Moon Artifacts your card not only serves as your identification but also your wallet. If you look at your card you will see that your balance is currently at 0. At this counter you can exchange real life money for the store's currency. With every purchase you make a certain number of store points are added to your card. When you accumulated enough points, your card's level will automatically rise."

"But what about this donation thing," she asked the clone.

"There is one other way to raise one's level without needing to buy items, and that is through donations. Exotic plants, medicinal herbs, chakra ores, beast crystals, even family heirlooms, we will accept everything but Ryo. Of course, you can also sell them to us and we will give you a fair price, but your points will stay the same," it explained before pointing to a bulletin board to the side with different flyers, "If you look to the side you will find a noticeboard. It has a list of different items that the shop is currently looking for, and how much they are worth."

Kurenai looked at the noticeboard as saw a picture with a red root on it,

In need of Fire Ginseng

Collect as much Fire Ginseng

Reward: 2,000 Ryo per ginseng or 100 Store Points each

"It's updated on a weekly basis, so keep an eye peeled when out of the village okay?"

"Oh, I see," the Genjutsu Mistress nodded as she scanned the bulletin board and noticed that many of the plants that Anko had brought corresponded with different flyers.

Turning back to the clone she took out her wallet and placed some money on the counter, "I'd like to deposit some money in my account then."

The clone took the money and finished the transaction with well-practiced ease.

Kurenai Yuhi

ID: 000243

Type: White

Ryo Balance: 3,000

With her card firmly in her hand she could finally start shopping.

She walked toward the clothing section of the store and quickly lost herself in the new experience, "Oh, this top looks cute? What? It's only 60 Ryo. Maybe I should get two?"

Anko looked at just how fast she was forgotten, "Oh well, at least I can go to the third floor without worry now?"

She quickly made her way to the third floor, completely ignoring the second.

Once she reached it, she walked toward the counter where Kenji's clone was carving a human face out of a block of wood, "Hey there Boss? How's business?"

The clone didn't glance up as he tried to shape the mouth in just the right way, "Hello Mitarashi, how is my prized student? Business is going fine. The original is outside however."

"Can't complain. So anyways, I remember you saying that you sell-"

"You want to purchase a Pill furnace I take it," the clone cut in.

"Yeah, you sell them on this floor, right?" she asked with a large grin leaning on the counter, purposely giving the clone a look at her cleavage.

The Kenji clone put away the head and tools before turning to face her, "I do. They are 100,000 Ryo each. You have the money?"

Anko stuck out her card, "You bet your ass I do! I've been saving up for weeks."

The clone smiled at her enthusiasm. Just like he said, Anko was Kenji's prized student in the Alchemy classes something that should came as a big surprise on account of her familiarity with making poisons. That wasn't to say that she didn't put any effort, as she worked harder than any other of his students.

He could also guess the reason why. She probably wanted to find a way to suppress or eliminate her curse seal using alchemy. This was mostly caused by the tea she had ingested during his meeting with the Hokage. Its ability to suppress it must have made a bigger impact than he initial thought.

He took out a space ring and located the item inside. With a wave of his hand a small two-foot-high urn appeared on the counter. It was dark blue in color and stood on four legs with a small window built on the side to feed it ingredients.

Kenji's clone took the card and subtracted the amount from her balance.

He handed the card back to her but also a book, "Here. Seeing as you were the first of my students to buy one, I'll give you this as a reward."

She scanned to the book and noticed that it was filled with different techniques on pill refining and personal notes about useful herbs and materials. She held to her chest tightly, "Boss, …you suddenly look pretty handsome today."

The clone smile turned into a line as it flicked a wood chip at her.

"Ow!"

She rubbed her forehead but smile anyways. She was one step closer to ridding herself of her curse once and for all.

'Wonder if I can use it to make dango?'

A/N: Done. Hey everyone, hope you like todays chapter.

For those of you who were wondering what Madam Ruby looked like, just search up Saigou Tokumori from Gintama.

So there was a small time skip, four weeks to be exact.

This chapter didn't have a lot of Kenji, since I wanted to cover the shops system and those who use it. Next chapter will be all Kenji I promise.

I hope the system was easy to understand, it is something to keep in mind but don't worry if you don't since it won't play a big part in the story.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, I'll try to answer them in the next chapter, which I am working on right now.

Until next time :)

PS: Kenji has already black listed a few people from entering his property like Danzo, Itachi, Tsunade, etc.