The Main Character is Here!

After leaving the Hokage Tower, Masashi is feeling excited at his first sale.

There was more work to be done, but everything was looking up.

He raced over to the Open Market and went inside the building at the beginning of the street. This is where he would get himself a Kiosk number. 

It was far busier than both the Civil Affairs Office and Shinobi Affairs Office. This was to be expected considering people around the nations would come here for business.

After about 30 minutes of waiting, I was gestured over by one of the attendants.

"Hello, how could I help you this morning?" The clerk asked in a clearly practiced tone.

"I would like a Kiosk for a week," Masashi responds pulling out his ID and Business License handing it over.

The clerk grabbed them, made a copy for records, and asked basic questions regarding Masashi's business. He printed out his number and handed it to him.

"That'll be 237,500ryo. Cash or card?" He asks while Masashi hands over his card and the payment goes through. "Thank you. Your number is valid until next Sunday. Please leave the number within the display case of your chosen kiosk to let others know it is taken."

It seems the discount is pretty nice at least. Saved almost 15,000ryo.

"Thank you." Masashi leaves the building with his number in hand and begins to walk the streets.

After taking in all the different goods people are selling at the various stalls, he realizes that he is quite lucky. One kiosk is open near the end of the first street and that area typically has quite a bit of foot traffic. It's not right at the end, but a couple of spots down. It can still be seen before entering the street.

He heads over and puts his number into the display case. After that, he unseals his banner and attaches it to the top of his stand. The bare kiosk itself is pretty cliche with a roof and table with some kind of tarp so that his goods won't get wet.

Masashi then unseals all of his volumes down in five rows while standing a few of them up so others could see the front cover.

He is quite lucky that there are four walls and a bar flap that allows entrance behind the counter. There is a chair and he can hide his computer in his lap and create manga while sitting.

There's not a whole lot to do but he could pass the time and create some more character cutouts, because there are multiple rows and columns, he could wedge the cutouts in between the columns to have the characters stand up.

He decides to create a regular Tanjiro, Nezuko, Giyu, Urokodaki, and a pair cutout of Sabito and Makomo for the five rows. They all appear in the first volume and are introduced. Otherwise, he could have added Ubayashiki's children if he wanted to.

Well, at least he added them in the cutouts and placed a few in the volumes.

Just when he was about to summon his computer someone walked up to the stand.

"Hey, what's all this?" A feminine voice asked as Masashi stood up.

"Comic books but in a newer style called manga. All these books are the first volume of my new series: Demon Slayer." Masashi smiles gesturing to the books. 

The alcohol is certainly helping. Maybe he should drink every time he tries to sell his manga.

"Oh…right the banner. Could I look at it?" She asks and Masashi nods.

"There's a summary on the back. It's 1000ryo per volume." He informs her before letting her do her thing. Masashi summons his laptop under the counter and begins making more volumes.

The woman in question is Reiko. She had the day off from her father's shop, so she decided to do some shopping early before it became too busy. Reiko saw the young man setting up his shop taking out the banner and volumes. 

She had two younger brothers and one older sister. The woman knew that both her younger brother loved comic books and that her sister was a fan of romance novels. 

'Though calling Icha Icha a romance novel…it's just smut.' She growled internally. How her sister can read that filth is beyond her, even if it was written by a great man like Jiraiya-sama.

Looking at the back she was greeted by what looked like a pattern and flowers with the name of the…manga, as he said.

She began to read the summary.

'Whole family slaughtered? Demons? Turning his sister back into a human? Who's this Giyu person?' She became immediately interested. The summary painted a clear picture. It seems like a simple plot, but just the artwork quality on both front and back astounded her.

She wasn't a fan of comic books like her brothers but she did like adventure and action fiction novels. 

Naturally, this Tanjiro person will fight demons so maybe it'd be worth getting.

"Are you the author of this manga?" She asked using the style of comic book that this is supposed to be.

"Yes, I'm the author and illustrator." Masashi glances up before looking back down.

'What is he looking at?' She immediately dismissed that thought and looked at the cover again. 

"Could I get 4 volumes?" She asks and Masashi immediately dismisses the computer and stands up.

"Of course, that'll be 4000ryo." Masashi states and that shocks her.

'So cheap? Aren't comic books normally around 1500ryo?' She decides not to think much about it before handing him the bills. Her brothers would like it and she is also interested. The last one was for her sister so that hopefully this manga will make her stop reading that garbage.

"Thank you. Enjoy the manga." Masashi smiles and Reiko pockets them into her purse.

She bows.

"Thank you. I will." She leaves shortly after.

Masashi sat back down looking at the bills in his hand. Thinking back to earlier, he brought out the money from his first sale with Naruto.

'So how do I convert thi—" Masashi was interrupted as the bills disappeared and a popup with the same design as the status screen showed up in front of him.

EC: 0.5

Ah right. Together, I had 5,000ryo and the conversion is 1 EC for 10,000ryo. 

Well, the day is still young. Now back to wo—

"WOAH! What's all this?!" An extremely loud voice interrupted his thoughts and he almost flinched in response before calming down. He raised his head and saw two very familiar people.

Uzumaki Boruto and Nara Shikadai.

+=[ES]=+

Five minutes ago

+=[ES]=+

"Why'd the hell you wake me up so early just to walk around town?" Shikadai muttered following his friend. He could've slept in a bit like he always does.

Especially since it's the weekend. Did Boruto have no soul?

"My mom took me to my appointment with Sakura-oba today. I was bored so I came over so we could do something." Boruto responds with his hand clasped behind his head.

'Did I say he had no soul? I take it back. He's the devil.' Shikadai felt like swatting the back of his head for such an asinine reason before exhaling.

"Troublesome." Shikadai looked around as if they were just walking around for anything that seemed interesting.

After a little while, his head turned to the left he saw a woman looking at some kind of book. If he had to guess, it was likely a comic book with how detailed both the cover and back.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Boruto looked back and Shikadai realized he stopped walking. The blond followed his friend's gaze and saw some kind of stall with a banner: Demon Slayer Manga

'Manga? What is that?' He decides to take a closer look. Shikadai also follows him considering he is a bit interested. While he would rather laze around and watch clouds. Lazying around and reading a comic book is a close second.

As Boruto got closer the woman paid the guy behind the counter and left, he also got a better look at the stand. The banner had an awesome fire dragon that was incredibly well made. 

He immediately turned his gaze to all the books. Some kind of guy around his age with a sword with reddish-black hair holding onto a girl with strange eyes and fangs is on the cover.

"WOAH! What's all this?!" He couldn't help but exclaim. With the banner and then the great artwork on the cover, how can he help it? He's never seen such high-quality drawings before.

'Well maybe except for Sai-oji-san.' He hardly counted that though since these were comics! He can just tell they are after reading so many of them.

+=[ES]=+

Present

+=[ES]=+

First the father, and now the son? Is his luck so good? Masashi couldn't help but be astonished. Konoha isn't exactly a small place especially after this new era rapidly expanding and growing. How strange.

"These are manga from my new series: Demon Slayer." Masashi smiled.

Boruto tilted his head.

"Manga? Aren't they comic books?" He asked with a questioning look.

"They are similar, but manga is just a different style of comic book. Instead of issue numbers, there are volumes, chapters, and also considerable change in art style, linework, and so on." Masashi explained and he could see that most of that flew over Boruto's head at his vacant look. Only Shikadai seemed to nod in understanding.

"I see. What's it about?" Boruto moves on and starts asking the hard-hitting questions.

"Well, It starts off with…"

+=[ES]=+

Around the same time

+=[ES]=+

After finishing up some paperwork, Naruto immediately opened the door and looked down both sides of the hallway, seeing no one, he closed the door and sat back down, taking out the volume of Demon Slayer.

Smiling to himself he looks at the cover and opens to the first page, however he realizes something. Closing the manga, he brushes his fingers among the pages.

'Isn't this backwards?' Naruto hummed and turned it over to the back…or the front? He admired the pattern and the interesting flowers. Perhaps Ino would know what they are? He also saw a summary and decided to read it.

He started frowning.

'Family slaughtered? Demons? Like what others call the Biju? No that can't be. This Nezuko person turned into one. Tanjiro is trying to turn her back into a human and hunts other demons. What's Japan?' All these thoughts flow through his head and while the family dying part of the book concerned him, he still wasn't entirely sure it was so bad to not allow Boruto to read it. He decided to not think anymore and opens the book.

He is greeted by the page telling him that he's reading the wrong way, and a picture showing him how to read it.

'So this is a backwards book? Is this part of the manga style that's different from comic books?' He flipped the manga around and read it the way he was shown.

Then there was a knock at the door before it was opened. Naruto quickly hid the book glaring at the door.

Shikamaru walked in seeing that look.

"What?"

+=[ES]=+

Masashi and the boys

+=[ES]=+

"...and Tanjiro begins to hunt demons and trying to find a way to cure his sister." Masashi finished his summary and Boruto had sparkles in his eyes.

"Wow! Such an awesome story. How much?!" Boruto was practically radiating excitement and Shikadai felt a little interested. He could tell the story sounded pretty bland but maybe the artwork would make up for it. Or perhaps there's more than meets the eye? He wants to find out.

Boruto liked it since he had a little sister at home and Tanjiro's willingness to slay demons and find a cure for his sister to be very heroic. He even fantasized about himself slaying waves of demons for his sister, although he didn't really know what they were yet.

"Now hold on. There is an age requirement of 12 to read it and 1000ryo." Masashi informs them. The age requirement was mainly for the blood, gore, and violence. It's so low because content laws are rather lax here because of the shinobi lifestyle. Kids that young can legally kill people, so the world is naturally a bit fucked.

This works in Masashi's favor though since he could have more customers. It's not that bad anyway.

Boruto not missing a step speaks up.

"We're both 12. Come on. We'll take two!" Boruto grabbed his wallet while nudging Shikadai who looked a little apprehensive but followed suit.

Masashi smiles slightly.

'Liar. I know you start the academy soon and you graduate when you're 12, so clearly you are 11.' He will naturally not call him out on that. Denying a future manga enthusiast?

That was just pure blasphemy.

"Alright, you can pick one any one you want." Masashi takes the bills and the two younger boys looked a bit confused at his phrasing.

"Is there a difference or something?" Shikadai asks while looking at the volumes seeing nothing off about them.

"Ah, There are small cutout characters from the volume in each volume on a random page. Sort of like those Shinobi Trading Cards that are popular. Mine aren't cards but they are all tracked by releases. For example, if you were to find the cutout of Tanjiro it would be: Volume 1: Kamado Tanjiro. Something like that." He explained to them and Boruto looked awed but that was understandable considering his immense interest in the trading cards.

In the future, he would spend a hell of a lot of his mission pay on those cards.

Shikadai, though, also looked pretty impressed. He really was his father's son. Shikadai almost immediately saw the business tactic used in a rather unconventional way.

"Really?!" Boruto began looking at all of them with his hand on his chin, trying to choose one. "Agh! I'll just choose this one!" Tired of overthinking he just chose a random one and so did Shikadai, but he hardly cared.

Knowingly selling the manga to underage kids, he didn't really care considering it wasn't like he was giving them alcohol or cigarettes.

Ah, cigarettes. In his previous life, he was quite the smoker. Maybe…?

'No! I'm already drinking. Let's not add another vice just for the hell of it.' Masashi sat back down and converted the money.

EC: 0.7

'I wonder if they'll be back soon. The Shinobi Trading Cards are like 1500ryo per pack, but at the same time, they are real people here. I can only hope they like the story enough to buy multiple volumes because they're gacha addicts.' He laughs.

Perhaps if I unlock the Game Creation I could make Genshin Impa—

Masashi nearly slaps himself for that thought.

What kind of monster would I be for releasing that into this world?

Maybe…?

No! Even if I were to rake in the cash. I've hardly even played that game so I'd have to use the crystal. Speaking of that, how do I get more of them? This damn system doesn't tell me shit.

On a serious note, even if I were to go the greedy route, those games would be on the back burner. I have more interesting ideas for the game section.

He shakes his head. This was quite a bit in the future to even be thinking of right now.

Masashi summons his laptop and starts creating more volumes.

One after another.