After hearing what Richard wanted, the staff quickly replied, "We have a few places that match what you're looking for, but they might be a bit expensive."
"Money's not a problem," Richard said calmly.
He didn't know Konoha's housing prices well, but since an average chunin could easily support a family, they couldn't be that high.
"Great, then I'll take you to see them right now," the staff member said.
"Sounds good," Richard nodded.
For the next couple hours, he followed the staff around different parts of Konoha, checking out the houses and shops they recommended.
In the end, he bought a single-family house near the Uchiha clan's area.
For his shop, he picked a spot downtown.
After deciding on the locations, they went back to Shida Real Estate near Ichiraku Ramen and signed the purchase contracts.
The house near the Uchiha clan didn't cost much.
The Uchiha originally lived on the village outskirts.
After the massacre, the already low housing prices in that neighborhood dropped even more.
The Naruto world had its share of ghosts and spirits.
No normal person wanted to live near a place where lots of people had died violently.
But Richard didn't care about that stuff.
Even if the Uchiha district was actually haunted, he could destroy those ghosts without breaking a sweat.
Compared to the cheap house, shops downtown were way more expensive.
But that wasn't a problem for him.
He'd just exchanged 800 million ryō at the currency shop and had plenty of money to buy a store.
After signing the contracts and paying 320 million ryō in cash for the house and shop, he left Shida Real Estate and headed downtown.
He'd bought the house, but it was still empty.
Before going to his new home, he planned to buy everything he needed in one go.
The shop could wait for later.
After shopping downtown for several hours, he finally got all the furniture and daily necessities he needed.
He paid extra to have everything delivered and set up that night so he could move in right away.
By the time everything was done, it was past ten at night.
Looking around his newly furnished home with satisfaction, Richard suddenly felt like checking out Konoha's red-light district.
The anime never went into detail about what services were available in Konoha's entertainment district, but such places tend to be similar wherever you go.
The red-light district in the Naruto world would probably be similar to Japan's Kabukicho.
Richard didn't think too hard about it and made up his mind quickly.
Since he was here, it would be a waste not to experience it.
Unlike Naruto and Sasuke who were underage, he was a grown adult.
Decision made, Richard left his new home without hesitation.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, he didn't plan to fly or use super speed to get there. Instead, he'd travel like a ninja would.
But shortly after leaving his house, he spotted a lonely figure on the street ahead.
Coming home so late?
The solitary figure was none other than Sasuke.
Specifically, a slightly dirty Sasuke who'd just finished a D-rank mission.
Seeing Sasuke, a thought suddenly popped into Richard's mind.
If he became Sasuke's teacher, would Sasuke betray him like he eventually betrayed Orochimaru?
Though Richard had only been a ninja for a short time, he now knew as much about ninjutsu as any jonin.
All those ninjutsu scrolls and books he'd read in Otogakure and Kirigakure hadn't gone to waste.
Sasuke, who was heading home to rest, soon noticed Richard's gaze and looked up at the rooftop where Richard stood.
Seeing Richard, Sasuke immediately became wary.
Though he didn't hate Richard as much as Naruto did, his first impression hadn't been great either.
He'd been unconscious during their encounter, but Kakashi had filled him in later.
In Sasuke's view, Richard wasn't a good person for stopping Kakashi from killing Zabuza, a Kirigakure missing-nin.
Because of Itachi, Sasuke instinctively disliked any ninja who betrayed their village.
Ironically, he would later become a missing-nin himself, but that was still in the future.
For now, he disliked any ninja who betrayed their village.
Richard ignored Sasuke's suspicious expression, used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before him, and asked:
"Do you want to become stronger?"
What?
Sasuke grew even more suspicious after hearing this.
"I asked if you want to become stronger," Richard repeated.
"All ninja want to become stronger. I'm no exception," Sasuke replied with a frown.
Though he didn't know what Richard was planning, he was certain he was no match for him.
"Richard's strength is at least equal to mine. To be honest, I can't even see his limits."
"If you meet him again, don't do anything rash. He's not someone you can handle."
Kakashi had said this to Team 7 during their mission that afternoon.
Though Naruto thought Kakashi was overestimating Richard, Sasuke didn't agree.
When Kakashi had spoken those words, Sasuke could tell he was dead serious.
"If you want to become stronger, I can help you," Richard said slowly.
"Why would you want to help me?" Sasuke asked quickly.
"If you need a reason, let's say I hope you succeed in your revenge," Richard said casually.
Of course, he couldn't tell Sasuke what he was really thinking, so he made up an excuse.
After a few seconds of silence, Sasuke asked, "Have you met that man?"
"No," Richard replied.
Just as Sasuke was about to say something else, Richard pointed to his new house and said, "When you've made up your mind, you can find me at that house."
"I've got some personal business to take care of, so let's leave it at that for now."
With that, he used the Body Flicker Technique again and vanished from Sasuke's sight.
After Richard disappeared, Sasuke's first instinct was to find Kakashi.
But he quickly abandoned that idea and continued walking toward the Uchiha district.
Konoha's red-light district wasn't far from downtown.
Compared to the quiet downtown area with few pedestrians, the red-light district was buzzing with activity.
Bars, nightclubs, and hostess clubs were all packed with people.
Besides these legal entertainment spots, there were also some not-so-legal underground venues in the district.
Though it was his first time here, Richard found those illegal spots without much effort.
With his super vision, no matter how well hidden those places were, they couldn't escape his sight.
After looking around for a bit with his super vision, he chose the one with the prettiest hostesses.
Noon the next day.
Richard woke up in his new bedroom.
Though he'd gone to an underground club in the red-light district last night, he hadn't stayed out all night – just for about an hour.
After washing up, he didn't immediately go to his new shop. Instead, he went down to the basement.
Before opening the shop, he planned to make the vibranium weapons he would sell.
First, he took out ten kilograms of raw vibranium from his system space.
Then, he channeled magical power through his body, creating a massive flame that formed a golden fireball over a meter in diameter.
Once the incredibly hot fireball appeared, he used more magic to wrap the vibranium on the ground and levitate it into the fireball.
As time passed, the vibranium inside the fireball gradually changed from solid to liquid.
After melting all the vibranium, he began shaping it.
Though he'd never forged weapons before, it wasn't particularly difficult for him.
With his current magic control, he could easily shape the liquid vibranium into whatever form he needed.
Kunai and short swords!
He didn't make any other weapons, just kunai and short swords – two very common ninja tools.
Without much effort, he shaped 15 kunai and 3 short swords.
The short swords looked pretty standard, nothing special.
As for the kunai, he shaped them like the three-pronged kunai used by the Fourth Hokage, the "Yellow Flash of Konoha."
After finishing the shaping, he dismissed the golden fireball, cast a massive blizzaga spell, and created cold air to cool down the kunai and swords.
In seconds, the weapons were completely cooled.
Done!
Looking at the three-pronged kunai and the short swords floating in front of him, Richard nodded with satisfaction.
Though he hadn't used any special forging techniques – just melting vibranium and reshaping it – the weapons he'd made were still incredibly rare treasures.
High-quality ingredients often only need the simplest cooking method!
Similarly, premium metals only need the most basic forging technique!
Putting the vibranium weapons into his system space, Richard left the basement and headed downtown.
Just like when furnishing his house yesterday, he first bought everything he needed for the shop.
After getting supplies, he walked to his store.
Before noon, a weapon shop named "That Weapon Store" opened its doors.
There was no grand opening, no publicity, just a simple layout, shocking prices, and only 18 items for sale. In the first three hours, not a single customer came in.
The lack of customers didn't bother Richard at all.
He never planned to make money from this weapon shop. Whether customers came or not made no difference to him.
He only opened this shop to give himself a "legitimate" identity in Konoha.
At five in the afternoon, Richard closed the shop right on time, having had zero customers on his first day.
Since there were no customers to distract him, he spent the whole afternoon practicing and developing the Rasengan in his weapon shop.
Though the Rasengan was an A-rank jutsu invented by the Fourth Hokage, anyone who knew the training method could master it without being taught.
There were four stages to learning the Rasengan.
The first stage was gathering chakra in your palm.
This was the easiest stage, even a genin could master it easily.
After that, the second and third stages got much harder.
Though they were separate stages, both involved continuously releasing chakra in a stable way.
The difference was that in the second stage, the goal was to burst a water balloon with irregular spinning chakra.
The third stage was bursting a rubber ball and making the wildly spinning chakra take physical form.
By the third stage, the Rasengan already had some attack power.
But it wasn't nearly enough, only causing surface damage.
The fourth stage combined everything from the first three: maintaining high-density, irregularly spinning chakra in your hand continuously and stably.
As an A-rank jutsu that needed no hand signs, the Rasengan could be used with one hand and launched quickly.
Plus, the Rasengan had huge growth potential.
All the various Rasengan techniques Naruto invented were proof of that.
Though Richard had never trained in the Rasengan before, it took him less than an hour from starting practice to completely mastering it.
Whether using magic or chakra, he could control it precisely at will.
Learning the Rasengan was a breeze for him.
After mastering it, he began experimenting by adding different elements to the Rasengan.
He tried combining his Firaga, Thundaga, Aeroga, and Blizzaga skills with the Rasengan.
Though he only spent an afternoon trying, he came up with some interesting results.
Of his four elemental skills, Firaga and Blizzaga had been upgraded to the maximum level 5.
So he first tried combining Firaga and Blizzaga with the Rasengan.
Though he didn't create anything particularly groundbreaking, similar to Naruto's variants, he developed two special Rasengan techniques only he could use.
The Flame Rasengan and the Blizzard Rasengan.
Just from their names, you could guess what they did.
The Flame Rasengan looked like a fireball, with the incredible heat generated by Firaga.
The Blizzard Rasengan, like an ice ball, had temperatures low enough to freeze enemies instantly.