Chapter 64: Starting a Small Business
"Do you have something you want to talk to me about?" Yuu asked softly, looking at Nono.
"Yes. There's something I'd like to ask of you." Nono smiled gently. "I have to leave the village for a while. While I'm gone, could I ask you to look after Kabuto?"
"Leaving?" Yuu's expression turned thoughtful. "Another mission?"
"Yes." Nono kept smiling, forcing herself to look relaxed. "There are more children in the orphanage now. The funds the village allocates are barely enough anymore."
"As the director, I have to find ways to keep everything running."
For a shinobi, the fastest way to earn money was taking missions. From that angle, what Nono said sounded perfectly normal.
But Yuu knew her so called "mission" was not that simple.
If nothing unexpected happened, the work she was being sent to do came from Root. Intelligence gathering, infiltration, sometimes even playing the part of a spy.
"Does it really have to be like this?" Yuu let out a long breath. "Compared to supplies, what the children want most is your safety."
As the orphanage director, Nono truly loved those children. She treated them like her own.
And the children loved her too. They worried about her, protected her in their own clumsy ways.
If they knew she was risking her life just to bring in money, they would not accept it easily. From their perspective, living frugally together would be far better than watching her walk into danger alone.
"I know." Nono's smile did not change. Her voice stayed soft. "But as their mother, how could I watch them suffer?"
"If that's the choice, I'd rather be the one who works harder."
"Then please be careful," Yuu said quietly. "Soon, things will be different."
"Before that, Nono sensei, you can't let anything happen to you."
He was talking about the upcoming Hokage election.
The leverage Root held over Nono right now was nothing more than funding. If she disobeyed, they would cut the money and the orphanage would collapse.
That may have been unavoidable before, but once Minato took office, everything would change.
A new Hokage without an established base could be called "bare bones" at the start, but bare bones or not, he would still be Hokage.
If Minato did not know what Danzo was doing, that was one thing. But if he found out, then with Minato's personality, Yuu would not even need to push. Minato would move on his own.
When that time came, Nono would finally have real peace, and she could stay here as the orphanage director with a quiet mind, just as she wanted.
"Yes, alright." Nono smiled. "Then I'll wait for your good news, Yuu."
In truth, she did not take his words seriously.
Only someone who had lived inside Root could understand how massive Root's reach truly was.
With her situation, escaping Root's control completely felt almost impossible.
In her eyes, Yuu's words were comfort, nothing more.
Even so, she was still happy. She pulled him into a hug and patted his head firmly.
"While I'm away, Yuu, you have to live well," she murmured, gentle as always. "Grow up well, work hard, and don't think too much."
"No matter what happens, I'm still here…"
Yuu froze for a moment, then reacted. A smile rose on his face.
"I will."
He stepped out of her embrace, waved once, and walked out.
Behind him, Nono watched quietly.
Her gaze stayed gentle, as always.
Yuu left the office and entered the yard.
When he found Itachi, the scene surprised him.
Inside the orphanage, Itachi was moving around, cleaning up and tidying things again and again.
Beside him, Kabuto was busy too.
The two of them looked like ordinary children for once, helping everywhere and cleaning as they went.
From the way they moved and the few words they exchanged, they already seemed somewhat familiar.
Even if they only spoke a little, for Itachi's personality, that was rare enough.
Most children were far too naive for him. There were not many he could talk to at all.
But if it was Kabuto, it made sense.
Even though Kabuto had lost his past memories, he was still naturally precocious, and his mind was meticulous. He was not inferior to Itachi in that regard.
And Kabuto's social skills were much better. He could chat smoothly with people far below him, and he could also communicate with someone as mature as Itachi.
Just like in the original pattern of his life, he could talk comfortably with a simple minded kid like Naruto, and also communicate with someone like Orochimaru.
So it was not strange that the two of them could get along now.
"Are you two helping out?" Yuu walked over and asked.
"Ah, Yuu niichan, you're here?" Kabuto looked surprised, then quickly smiled. "The orphanage is doing a big cleanup. We were just standing around, so we came to help."
"As for Itachi, he's a new friend I made."
Kabuto turned toward Itachi, smiling with innocent warmth.
"A friend?"
Itachi met Yuu's gaze, calm as ever, and gave a small nod in acknowledgement.
There were truly very few children who could talk to him normally. Someone like Kabuto was even rarer.
To Itachi, calling him a friend did not feel like an exaggeration.
"It seems you two are getting along well." Yuu smiled. "In that case, I'll help too."
He did not stay idle. Like them, he joined the work.
A day later, he left with both of them.
Nono had entrusted Kabuto to him, so Yuu did not leave Kabuto at the orphanage. He brought him home as well.
His house was spacious, and he usually lived alone. One more child did not change much.
The next morning, Yuu went to Minato's house early.
"Ah, you're planning to open a shop?" Minato looked at him, clearly surprised.
"Yes." Yuu smiled. "I saw the orphanage is short on funds, and a lot of children aren't living well. I want to find a way to earn money."
"So what are you thinking of doing?" Minato asked.
"How about packaged food?" Yuu said. "Things like instant noodles, convenient ramen, that sort of thing."
"I've watched for a while. Many shinobi in Konoha have to bring their own food when they go on missions."
"And instant noodles and convenient ramen are simple to use. They're also easier to carry than normal food."
The biggest consumer group in Konoha was still shinobi.
And whether jonin or genin, they all went on missions frequently.
In that kind of work, normal food could be inconvenient.
Instant noodles and convenient ramen were different.
They were easy to carry and had a long shelf life, so you did not have to worry about poisoning or spoilage.
They were also easy to use. You could eat them directly.
And the taste was consistent, at least better than whatever random meals people scraped together in the wild.
"That's a very good idea." Minato nodded as he listened. "If the taste is good, they should sell very well."
Minato had climbed up from the bottom. He had done plenty of missions.
Food on missions really was a problem. Sometimes, when there was no other choice, shinobi ended up eating insects or wild animals.
But that brought issues. It affected your condition, and there was always the risk of enemy shinobi poisoning the supply.
So having portable food as a supplement would be a strong option.
"But business is hard, isn't it?" Minato asked. "Yuu, do you have any experience?"
He was a shinobi through and through. He had never run a business, so he did not know what to expect.
The idea sounded good, but how it would work in practice was another story.
"It's hard if you say it's hard, and easy if you say it's easy." Yuu just smiled at Minato's doubt.
Starting from nothing with no experience and no connections was, of course, difficult.
But for someone who controlled resources, it was simple.
And right now, Yuu had resources in his hands.
Minato was a popular Hokage candidate.
Even without counting everyone close to him, the shinobi from the Nara and Akimichi clans alone were not a small number.
And now he also had the support of the Uchiha.
Those clans together represented a huge pool of shinobi.
With Minato's relationships, Yuu did not need anything excessive. Just having those clans arrange for their shinobi to use his products would already be enough.
If that happened, Yuu would not need to worry about sales at all.
That was real leverage.
In the end, for someone holding resources, earning money could be easier than breathing.
The reason no one had done it before was simple.
No one had thought to play it this way.
.....
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