Shop Acquired

Shortly after the laughs, Masashi gave them both his email, Naruto pays grumbling about starting to grow his hair out, and left the shop.

He held the address in his hand as he made his way over. It wasn't a long walk and he finally made it to the street.

Masashi could instantly tell which one it was.

It was a one-story shop with aged wood that had cracks and various dirt and grim attached. He's surprised that he didn't see mold.

There was a sign out front about the intention of selling, so he made his way in.

A musky scent quickly filled the room as it was probably worse inside than it was outside.

The wooden floorboards creaked and grinded as if he was in a horror film and he even saw a few completely split boards. Let's just say he would never take his shoes off in here. Splinters are truly the gravest danger rather than some shinobi equipment.

He didn't see any of the shinobi gear so Masashi assumed that Haruto sold everything for cheap before the building itself.

Masashi saw the man. He had a full head of gray hair going down to his shoulders and presumably his back. A small goatee in the same color, and a red robe with a gold trim.

The old man noticed him.

"Ah, young shinobi, there's nothing to buy since I'm closing the shop," Haruto informed him.

"I would like to buy it." Masashi decided that being direct would be best here.

He raised an eyebrow.

"While it may look rundown, it's 2,250,000ryo." He didn't believe that the young man understood.

Masashi nods.

"I have that much. Can we get the paperwork started?" Masashi smiled and Haruto could hardly believe it.

Haruto is 65 years old. He's lived through the moon almost crashing into the planet, the fourth, third, and second great shinobi wars. Outlived his wife and children as they died on the battlefield.

He's from an old generation. Have many businessmen come by to purchase his store?

Yes, many times, but he didn't like the large businesses suppressing the small ones with money.

That was one of the reasons he never sold and likely will have this property until he dies, but he hopes that someone with humble beginnings could take over.

He doesn't believe that could happen since shinobi were needed less and less these days and that naturally affected his income. The repairs kept piling up and he didn't have the money to fix it.

Haruto didn't want to take advantage of him as he was also eager to start his own family business back then. He could tell that the shinobi in front of him didn't have the same demeanor as those tricky rich folk. His long career as a shinobi had experience in sussing out people's intentions.

"The repair costs alone are worth more than half of the price itself." Haruto hoped that scared him off.

The young man smiled.

"I can handle it!" Masashi reassured the man.

The older man sighed before getting out the paperwork.

He was curious though.

"What do you sell?" Haruto wondered what the young man's business focus was. 

Masashi brought out his satchel for his ID and checkbook while he responded.

"Manga. It's a type of comic book. I've already sold over 70 copies at the Open Market. I've been looking for somewhere more permanent." He brought out a scroll for the first volume.

Haruto is no fool. While he may be an old head, he naturally knew of today's trends and comic books and those trading cards are what the kids are into. He even bought a few but didn't think of them as all that special.

He thought the same of the young man, but it soon changed as he flipped through the book.

"Who's the author and illustrator?" The older man asked in astonishment as he continued looking.

"I'm both." He confirmed as he began filling out the paperwork.

Haruto was truly shocked.

'A business owner, author, and artist?" He could hardly believe his ears. Almost thinks he's gone senile, but his thoughts go on. 

Haruto could hardly believe that someone so young could juggle all three professions at once. Times were truly changing.

Another 30 minutes went by as they chatted about various things and Masashi learned more about Haruto.

"You can keep the volume. Think of it as a gift for this occasion. I've been wanting a shop of my own." Masashi smiled and Haruto didn't refuse the gesture.

"Thank you, Masashi-kun." He smiled as they finally finished the paperwork.

The older man handed him the keys, but he wondered if he even needed them, now he was basically out of money. Only around 150,000ryo to his name.

He had already paid his bills on the first so he has another two weeks and then he'll be down to around 65,000ryo, so that would be an issue.

A month and a half to make things work, but he believes that it can be done.

He made his way back to the stand and removed the note.

Masashi made a couple of things.

The long-overdue Demon Slayer banner with his company logo attached at the bottom.

He also created another one advertising the opening of a shop on Sakumo Boulevard, which is obviously where his store would be. Masashi also likes Hatake Sakumo so that's a plus. It was named that way because of the Sixth Hokage. His email was also on it.

Next, he had a stack of cards and a sign for wanting to know of future updates on stock and releases to write down their email. He thankfully still had the pen from before.

After that was said and done, he got to work once more. His supply was abysmal:

Vol1. | 21

Vol1. Colored | 3

Vol2. | 5

Vol2 Colored | 0

Now that's just embarrassing, or pride in selling so many, if one didn't know he had so little second volumes to begin with.

His stock of first volumes was fine for now, but he had to make for the second installment.

After about an hour, he had another six volumes with a total of 11.

Not great, but also not in the danger zone.

"Hey, Masashi-san" To his surprise, Kiyomi was there.

"Ah, back for another volume?" He questioned and she nodded.

Kiyomi saw the second issue of Demon Slayer and went to pay.

Another 2 hours went by as he managed to complete 12 second volumes.

He also sold 4 first volumes, 2 colored first volumes, and 3 second volumes.

Masashi was a bit interested, so he checked his coins.

EC: 11.4

He can always appreciate steady growth, and with this investment of time and advertising, then he's sure he'll have quite the boom in numbers. 

Masashi would of course have to prepare and create as much as humanly possible.

Deciding that he wanted to go home for the day, he packed up his volumes and cards, while he left the banners.

He made a new one saying that he was done for the day and he'd be back at 9 am.

Once he made it back, he slipped off his shoes and put his wallet and keys on the table.

Masashi also had the paperwork with him in his satchel, so he'll head over tomorrow morning.

He summoned his laptop and got to work.

+=[ES]=+

"Hmm, 9 am?" Sai thought as he saw the card and banners. He came at 3 and saw that he was too late. He shook his head and made to come early.

It wasn't just him, but also Sakura, Ino, Choji, Karui, and Hinata.

+=[ES]=+

The Naruto family was eating dinner together which was rare, but it would soon turn into the norm. Boruto was happy and thankful to Masashi that he could finally have time with his dad again.

"Oh, Naruto-kun. It seems Himawari has been reading that manga." Hinata decided to just jump right in.

Boruto and Naruto choked while the latter gave a questioning look to the former and then to Himawari.

"It's okay! I read it some more and I like it now." Himawari continued eating.

Naruto didn't know what to say to that and turned to his wife.

"I saw them up there earlier and it's true. Are you fine with it?" She asks.

He carefully considered the question since he didn't know if it was a trick or not. Should he say no? But Himawari liked it.

Naruto decided to gather information first.

"What part did you like the most?" He asked, looking at his daughter.

"Oh! The one where Nezuko came out and started fighting! Oh, that happens twice…I like them both equally!" She nodded and Naruto did the same in excitement.

"I know right? A demon fighting demons! How cool is that?!" Naruto laughed and Boruto eventually joined the conversation.

Hinata felt a bit left out but that only strengthened her desire to get a copy for herself.

Naruto forgot about the question, but from his actions, he approved and so did she.

+=[ES]=+

It was about 9 pm and Masashi got quite a bit done.

He focused more on the second volume since they were almost all gone.

Masashi laid back on the couch looking at all the volumes he made. Taking out the other volumes from his scrolls, he stacks them together accordingly.

Vol1. | 18

Vol1. Colored | 6

Vol2. | 20

Vol2 Colored | 5

He was surprised and thought his math was off. Masashi began calculating and realized that he was able to create two more volumes a day with a total of 62, or 31 if they were all colored. He found out that he made an extra for 63 but that was mostly because he could regenerate chakra through the day.

His chakra increased after two days of training on empty, so perhaps if he joined a gym that could increase even higher. 

That wasn't applicable right now considering his dwindling funds, but he thought it would be fine.

Masashi had almost zero knowledge of gyms in this world and he could check one out. He might not even get one considering all the fees like startup, annual, etc.

He could only hope it was not so predatory.

Next, he grabbed his scrolls and, with a pen, marked each of them like so:

V1

V1C

V2

V2C

Naturally, he marked the smaller ones with the V1C and V2C, and the larger ones with the remaining.

Now, it was time to train once more.

Heading back to the training grounds, he did everything the same as the previous night.

Various calisthenics workouts to near exhaustion.

He truly hated his small reserves now more than ever, since they were getting in the way.

At this moment as he's panting, he doesn't care about the fees.

Masashi wants to lift some weights.

Anything for more of that juicy chakra.

He went home for the day and ate some ramen with his favorite drink.

Why he wasn't getting himself a proper diet, well…he hoped anime logic would help him out here.

Maybe he could get some protein such as eggs and bacon for the night workout. It's pretty scuffed but he can't afford to spend more on protein powder.

Yeah, they exist here.

This world always had some wacky levels of technology.

Soon, he fell asleep as he dreamed of his shop transforming into a dragon and flying away.

+=[ES]=+

Masashi got up and did his morning ritual.

He did his hygiene and put on his flak jacket with nothing underneath. The same colored pants and got himself some ramen and a bottle.

It was currently six in the morning and he had some paperwork to drop off today.

After creating 3 colored volumes for the first and second, he saw that it was 8 am and got his things in order.

Stepping out, Masashi smiled. 

He had a feeling it would be another good day.