3
Buying Luxury Goods Is Like This
Two hours later, Luke opened his eyes in pleasant surprise.
His chakra refining speed had become much faster than before. The amount of chakra he refined in these two hours exceeded what he used to refine in half a month.
Originally, he thought the refining speed would only be two or three times faster. He didn’t expect that talent improvement wasn’t a simple additive effect – the sublimation of body and soul, along with energy control, were all variables affecting refining speed.
It was roughly seven to eight times faster.
Luke made a rough estimate, happily feeling the mass of chakra inside him. He contemplated finding an opportunity to probe a certain famous measurement unit’s chakra reserves, to calculate how long he’d need to refine chakra to achieve “one Kā” of power.
Additionally, he needed to consider obtaining combat methods.
Obtaining the “Chakra Refining Technique” hadn’t been difficult, but Ninjutsu was different. This was something only ninjas could learn, and he lacked both the background to obtain Ninjutsu and the status of being a ninja.
He needed to find a way…
The door suddenly swung open. His younger brother Chuan Guang came to wake his elder brother, only to find Luke thoughtfully looking at him, his eyes gradually brightening.
Chuan Guang had seen this look before – whenever his brother accidentally broke household porcelain, he would use Chuan Guang’s young age and their parents’ leniency as excuses to drag him out to take the blame.
Suddenly feeling a sense of foreboding, Chuan Guang turned to run, but the next moment he was caught by a large hand. His body lifted into the air, much like a kitten having its scruff pinched.
“Little Guang, big brother remembers you want to attend Ninja School, right?”
Chuan Guang obediently nodded, “Didn’t you say I couldn’t go?”
“Hehehe, not necessarily to actually attend…”
Having an excuse was enough.
Chuan Guang blinked his innocent eyes, “Brother, I don’t understand.”
Luke pinched his brother’s chubby cheeks, “It’s fine, you don’t need to understand. Just follow big brother’s arrangements.”
It wasn’t excessive for him to buy some ninja training equipment for his soon-to-enroll brother, was it?
…
After breakfast, Luke swung the hammer as usual, only to find the iron hammer that used to feel heavy now light as a feather. His spirits lifted, and he began working with the hammer.
His efficiency was astonishingly fast – he completed the scheduled work in one hour, barely breaking a sweat. The kunai and shuriken he forged were more compact and of higher quality than before.
If his father hadn’t been nearby, forcing him to moderate his speed, he could have been even faster. Of course, limited by materials and craftsmanship, there was still some gap compared to genuine products.
“I have matters to attend to today, so I won’t be back for dinner. Tell mother not to prepare my portion.”
After bathing and changing into clean clothes, Luke smiled as he informed his father.
His father looked suspiciously at his eldest son. He felt something different about his son today – vibrant, radiant, seemingly more striking than usual.
His temperament had changed significantly too. Previously always gloomy, now he seemed to have suddenly released his true nature, smiling more frequently, as if transforming from secretly wild to openly wild.
After pondering for a while, recalling his own youthful days, he suddenly understood.
He must be in heat.
After all, he had reached the age to start a family and career. Wanting women was normal – constantly thinking about making money like before was what was abnormal.
Leaving home, Luke headed straight for formal high-end ninja tool shops. He planned to buy a sword and some weighted training equipment.
“Welcome.”
The ninja tool shop owner was a middle-aged man around forty. Seeing a customer enter, he was about to enthusiastically greet them, but when he recognized Luke, his face immediately fell, his attitude visibly cooling.
“Oh, if it isn’t the brat from the Chikawa family. To what do I owe the pleasure? Surely not here to pick a fight?”
The middle-aged shopkeeper’s tone carried some sarcasm.
The defective products from Chikawa Blacksmith Shop had impacted traditional ninja tool shops, causing sales to plummet. The owners of several shops had previously discussed confronting Chikawa Blacksmith Shop.
Ninja tool shops cooperating with ninjas weren’t something commoners like the Chikawa family could afford to offend. Fortunately, Luke had been prepared. After talking with several shop owners through the night, they quietly returned.
That night, he explained to the owners about brand effects and limited-quantity marketing.
In the following days, traditional ninja tool shops doubled their prices while hiring commoners to promote how their tools represented generations of craftsmanship, luxury items only noble ninjas could purchase. They launched limited edition tools, claiming limited production throughout Konoha.
They emphasized their tools were on a completely different level from Chikawa Blacksmith Shop’s toys, publicly declaring only noble ninjas from great clans were worthy of purchasing and using their tools.
Suddenly, the plummeting sales stopped declining, and revenue actually increased instead.
From then on, Konoha’s major clans uniformly purchased their clan supplies from formal ninja tool shops, while commoner ninjas and Ninja School students generally chose emerging shops represented by Chikawa Blacksmith Shop. The two coexisted without conflict.
“Naturally I’m here to buy things.”
Luke smiled, “I want to buy a good quality long sword and one hundred kilograms of leg weights.”
The middle-aged shopkeeper sneered, spreading his hands, “Sorry, out of stock.”
“Then what’s that in the display case?”
“You know it’s a display case, right? Display cases are for display items.”
Luke’s face darkened, “Then how can I get the goods?”
“Our ninja tools are only available to members, as you well know. You’re not a ninja from a great clan, so this puts me in a difficult position.”
The middle-aged shopkeeper answered righteously.
Luke: o(￣ヘ￣o＃)
Middle-aged shopkeeper: ㄟ(▔，▔)ㄏ
Luke felt like he had lifted a rock only to drop it on his own foot.
“Then what do you have for sale?”
The middle-aged shopkeeper took out a whetstone, “This is our newly launched whetstone. Look at this texture, this feel.”
“How much?”
“Not much. One hundred thousand ryo.”
“How much?!”
“One hundred thousand ryo.”
Do you even know that S-rank missions generally only pay one million ryo?
Luke fell silent for a moment. He hadn’t expected the shopkeeper to surpass the master, being even more shameless than him.
“If I buy this, will you have stock then?”
“Maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows? Buy it first, then we’ll see. Maybe then we’ll have some.”
Luke felt utterly exasperated, “This isn’t how you rob people.”
“Of course not. Robbing people would get me arrested by those Uchiha fools in the Garrison Force, but selling ninja tools won’t.” The middle-aged shopkeeper smiled proudly, “The Uchiha clan is our biggest customer base here.”
No surprise there – wealthy, arrogant, fond of comparisons, with plummeting intelligence when angered. The perfect example of people with more money than sense.
The Uchiha clan had contracts with the Cat Shop, originally having stable sources for quality ninja tools. Unexpectedly, to demonstrate their status as Konoha’s number one noble clan, they still got swept into buying these overpriced items.
Caring too much about face really made one vulnerable.
Calculating the time, in a few months Shisui would have his eyes gouged out by that old schemer Danzo, followed two years later by Uchiha Itachi’s clan massacre plan. Konoha’s number one noble clan title would then belong to the Hyuga family.
Luke narrowed his eyes, “Shopkeeper, I’m sincerely here to buy. Don’t make things difficult for me. Using what I taught you against me – isn’t that inappropriate?”
Although traditional ninja tool shops used Luke’s marketing strategies, making great clan ninjas their patrons due to face concerns, not all great clan ninjas were fools. Spending more to display status was acceptable, but they wouldn’t buy if prices were too high.
The prices the middle-aged shopkeeper quoted had clearly exceeded conventional increases.
“Hmph.” The middle-aged shopkeeper snorted. He had indeed been deliberately making things difficult for Luke.
Back when several shopkeepers angrily went to settle accounts, only to be persuaded to retreat by Luke’s arguments, although they made money, they always felt losing face by being talked down by this inherently evil Chikawa brat, leaving them dissatisfied.
But it was just dissatisfaction. No one would turn against money. They even considered recruiting him as a marketing consultant if Chikawa Blacksmith Shop ever collapsed.
Middle-aged shopkeeper: “Specific requirements.”
“I want good quality for the sword – sturdy, durable, not easily worn. If it’s made from chakra-conducting metal, that would be perfect. No special requirements for the leg weights, just unnoticeable when worn.”
The middle-aged shopkeeper couldn’t help frowning, “A sword made from Chakra Metal? You’re quite ambitious wanting such top-tier goods. Never mind that my shop doesn’t have any, even if we did you couldn’t afford it. We do have leg weights though – two fifty-kilogram ones okay?”
“Then just any ninja sword will do, with better materials.” Luke didn’t insist. Buying a sword was just for emergencies, to have a weapon for better performance.
The middle-aged shopkeeper pulled out a simple-styled sword about one meter long from behind the counter and tossed it over, then brought out the leg weights and threw them in front of Luke.
“Among wear-resistant and hard material ninja tools, this is the only sword available. Although it can’t compare to Chakra Metal, it balances weight and durability, making it a decent weapon.”
“Mid to high-end ninja tools require registration. What are you buying leg weights and ninja weapons for?”
Luke partially drew the sword, seeing a faint cold gleam before sheathing it. He smiled slightly, “For my younger brother. He’ll be attending Ninja School in half a year. I want to prepare in advance.”
It sounded completely unreasonable, but having an excuse was enough. Whether it made sense or not, nobody would care.
If nothing happened, even ninjas couldn’t check private shop records. If something did happen, any cover-up he could currently manage would be child’s play to intelligence-gathering ninjas.
He wasn’t planning to cause trouble currently anyway – he just needed a transition period.
The middle-aged shopkeeper was speechless.
“The sword you’re buying him is taller than he is! And one hundred kilograms of weights? You’re making a six-year-old child use these?”
Preparing a one-meter-long sword and one hundred kilograms of leg weights for a six-year-old child – you’d need ten years of brain damage to come up with something like this!
I advise you to be kind!
He took out an abacus and calculated.
“Total: three hundred thousand ryo.”
Luke: ?
I hope you understand that when I type a question mark, it’s not that I have a question, but that I think you have a problem.
“Would the Uchiha clan be happy knowing you treat them as easy marks? As you know, people from that clan are quite impulsive.”
The middle-aged shopkeeper coldly snorted: “Do you have evidence?”
No evidence means I’ll sue you for defamation!
“The sales strategies you use were all my ideas. Are you sure I don’t have other methods?”
Luke narrowed his eyes, bargaining with reason, “Besides, when people from that clan get worked up, they cause trouble directly. Do they wait for evidence before acting?”
This… seemed reasonable.
The middle-aged shopkeeper hesitated, feeling he should compromise. No need to affect big business over small change.
“Then for old times’ sake, two hundred thousand ryo.”
“I remember the Hyuga clan has ordered many ninja tools from you too?”
“…One hundred fifty thousand ryo.”
“Akimichi, Yamanaka, Aburame, Inuzuka…”
“One hundred thousand ryo, youngster, don’t go too far.” The middle-aged shopkeeper’s face darkened.
You’re the one going too far with your severely overpriced black-hearted shop!
Luke knew when to stop, painfully handing over the money while repeating the shop’s name and location in his mind.
Sooner or later I’ll dismantle this black-hearted shop!
Looking back, the earlier parts were really poorly written-
Really thankful for previous readers’ tolerance. For newcomers, maybe persevere a bit?
Kneeling to everyone, (ノ‥)ノ