“I already told you, it’s not Wood Release.”
“If you had both Water Release and Earth Release chakra natures, I could teach this technique to you!”
Hatake Shibu stated it matter-of-factly.
This technique had been created purely for making money.
If the Hot Air Technique could at least damage shinobi’s morale, then this technique had absolutely no combat ability whatsoever.
Shibu had named it:
Ninja Art: Toothpick Technique!
Although, perhaps it could be used to mock an opponent by saying:
Is yours really the same size as this toothpick I created?
Shibu felt that this might give the technique a little bit of combat potential.
But he suspected that if he actually said something like that to an enemy, they would probably do everything in their power to kill him.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to get rid of the hatred in their hearts.
After hearing this, Uchiha Obito finally calmed down.
Although Shibu was extremely unreliable, he did keep his word.
Since he said it wasn’t Wood Release, then it definitely wasn’t Wood Release.
However, Obito still asked worriedly,
“Shouldn’t you report something this important to the Hokage or your father?”
He had originally thought that selling the product outside the village would make everything safe.
He hadn’t expected it to be this kind of thing.
If the people in Konoha found out, things would definitely become serious.
“What would we tell them?”
“Say it’s important Wood Release, not wood!”
“Got it?”
“Be a little braver!”
Shibu spoke nonchalantly.
In reality, he was worried that if that old fox found out about this, he would reject his business plan.
After all, although this wasn’t Wood Release, it was still something similar to Wood Release.
The Hokage might decide to keep him in Konoha and have him continue developing it.
Being protected was certainly nice.
But if he couldn’t make money and grow stronger, sooner or later that bastard Danzo would capture him and use him for human experimentation.
“So… fine.”
“But what exactly is this useful for?”
“Can it make money?”
Uchiha Obito voiced his doubts.
After all, anyone could see that such a thin little branch couldn’t possibly be sold as a commercial product.
Could they sell it to parents who wanted to discipline their children?
Maybe they could hire themselves out to give the kids a good beating with bamboo shoots and meat?
“Shibu, listen to me.”
“You absolutely can’t do something so unconscionable!”
“If you do this, you’ll become the public enemy of the entire Ninja Academy!”
Obito immediately switched into persuasion mode.
Although Shibu had already been disliked by practically everyone at school, if he actually started selling something like this, the students would definitely corner him outside the school gates and beat him up. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“My creation can also transform.”
“Look!”
Shibu controlled the branch.
It began to change shape.
Soon, more than a dozen short wooden sticks with pointed ends appeared in front of Uchiha Obito.
“What is this?”
Obito picked one up.
It looked strangely familiar, but he couldn’t figure out what exactly it was.
Toothpicks did exist in the shinobi world, but they weren’t widely used.
The main reason was their price.
Cutting bamboo from a bamboo forest and processing it into toothpicks was quite troublesome.
As a result, toothpicks were relatively expensive.
They weren’t outrageously expensive, but they still cost money.
Ordinary people generally didn’t like using them.
Shinobi, meanwhile, could simply use senbon to deal with the problem.
As for civilians, they usually just found whatever was available and made do.
So Obito had no idea what these things were.
“Toothpicks!”
Shibu explained the concept to Obito.
He wasn’t planning to sell them for much.
But with small profits and high sales volume, if everyone in the shinobi world used his toothpicks, just imagine how much money he could make!
“Toothpicks?”
“Exactly!”
“Right now, the toothpick market in the shinobi world is practically a blue ocean.”
“I can use this ninjutsu to produce huge quantities of toothpicks.”
“Then we can sell five hundred for fifty ryō.”
“What do you think?”
Shibu quickly explained his entire plan.
Obito scratched his head.
“Isn’t that a little expensive?”
“Fifty ryō is enough to buy a bowl of ramen.”
Shibu smiled.
“We’ll sell them to restaurant owners!”
“They’ll need them.”
“Besides, it’s only fifty ryō.”
This was a small product capable of improving people’s quality of life.
When a piece of meat got stuck between your teeth, what could be more frustrating?
You could lick and lick at it with your tongue, but it just wouldn’t come out.
And once you started trying to get it out, you couldn’t stop until you succeeded.
Obito thought about it for a moment before nodding.
“Fine. Let’s go find Grandpa Yoshida now!”
Shibu nodded.
Konoha was, after all, a military settlement.
There was no way the villagers could simply build their homes wherever they wanted.
The residential areas and shinobi areas were somewhat separated to prevent unnecessary conflicts between the two groups.
Soon, they arrived in front of a somewhat run-down-looking house.
Hatake Shibu stared at Uchiha Obito with a face full of disbelief.
“Are you sure this is a merchant’s home?”
“Not the home of some lonely old man?”
Obito scratched his head.
“This is Grandpa Yoshida’s house.”
“You’ll understand once you go inside.”
He then knocked on the door and called out,
“Grandpa Yoshida, are you home?”
Shibu, meanwhile, began examining the surrounding environment.
At first glance, he had instinctively assumed that the place was poor.
But after looking at the location and the decorations around the house, he quickly changed his mind.
There wasn’t a single thing here that could be considered cheap.
Take the landscaping at the entrance, for example.
It clearly wasn’t something that could be created with ordinary craftsmanship.
If the owner were truly an ordinary civilian, he wouldn’t have the money—or the inclination—to put this much effort into landscaping his home.
Soon, a voice came from inside.
The owner was clearly an elderly man.
His voice was deep and hoarse.
“Who is it?”
The sound of the door opening followed.
Shibu turned his head.
Standing before them was a man well over fifty years old.
His clothes were somewhat old, but they were extremely clean.
And there was an unmistakable vigor about him.
Shibu stroked his chin as he sized up the old man.
Clearly, this wasn’t quite what he had expected.
“Oh, it’s Obito!”
The old man’s face immediately lit up when he saw Uchiha Obito.
“I have some snacks inside. Would you like to come in and have some?”
His son spent most of the year traveling outside the village for business and only returned twice a year.
Every time he came back, he was in a hurry, and every time he left, he was in just as much of a hurry.
As a result, the old man had long since come to regard Uchiha Obito as his own grandson.
“This is…?”
He then noticed Hatake Shibu standing behind Obito and looked somewhat puzzled.
Obito had never brought his friends here before.
Perhaps he simply didn’t want them to know about his life at home.