When I arrived at my store, located across the street from the Hokage building, having just put on a set of head-covering dresses that I had specially brought from the wind country to resist the hot summer sun better, I started hallucinating from the heat.
I mean, seriously...
[Congratulations, host, you've been chosen as the owner of the super template system]
It's been 22 years since I was reincarnated in the Naruto world.
I was brought here as a young child from the Uzumaki family with Kushina during the war.
I was five years old when the second great ninja war began, and I regained my memory.
I was still five years old when Grandma Mito died. Fortunately, I had already regained my memory by then, so her death didn't become a trauma for me as a child. After all, at that time, I lived with Grandma Mito almost all day long.
By the time I was seven years old, Jiraya had returned to the village. We met by chance when I was living in an orphanage, and he must have noticed my red hair because he immediately took an interest in me.
Unfortunately, after a while, Jiraya and I discovered a truth that didn't upset me too much; I had almost no talent as a ninja.
Of course, even if we say I had almost no talent, this was purely by the standards of the Uzumaki clan. With the amount of chakra in my body, I could easily surpass a standard Konoha ninja.
Well, not being stupid, I gave up on being a ninja altogether without much thought and got a job at an early age.
Meanwhile, even Danzo pretended to be an ordinary peasant and tried to convince me to enroll in school to become a ninja.
Fortunately, Mito-sama had entrusted me to Sarutobi before he died, and Danzo wasn't willing to take the huge risk of kidnapping me when I wasn't even a ninja.
I ignored Danzo and, with all the money I had saved in my late nineth year, I set a mission to the village and sent a group of ninjas to bring me goods from a butter producer I had been targeting for a long time.
I had heard about this butter producer from the shopkeeper I used to work for. Even though he loves this butter, he is not the kind of person who can bear the hassle of bringing it to Konoha and selling it.
Thanks to him, I made my first trade and quickly sold the butter at almost double the price, citing its beneficial effects on physical health compared to ordinary butter.
You know, for me it was a lot of money, but for the ninjas, the butter that sold for twice the price was not a big deal.
Ninjas were a consumer group that made a lot of money and spent a lot of money.
The catchiness of my hair color and my young age, as well as the quality of the products I was selling, quickly made me a topic of gossip.
For a few more months, I sold locally produced quality goods from nearby villages, but after a while, the price of goods increased because the war was heating up.
Then I had an ingenious idea.
The war was also an event that paved the way for exorbitant trade for the merchants. Of course, I can't scam the Ninjas because they'll cut my head off.
I thought about it for a while, trading weapons was not an option for me, so I went for the next big profit.
All Ninjas carried around tasteless food like rice balls or hunted during battle.
That's how I came up with the idea to mass-produce and sell pancakes, my favorite food when I lived alone in my old world.
Because I added a lot of honey and some lemon juice to the pancake recipe, I could extend the life of the pancakes for up to three days.
Thanks to my small reputation, I was able to sell pancakes in airtight containers to many people, even in the beginning.
I also started to put sugar cubes in the airtight container, and that dried out the moisture in the container, extending the life of the pancakes for another day.
That's when the development that led me to where I am now happened.
The ninjas gave my pancakes a meaning. For them, my pancakes were the last sweet and doughy food before the battle. The Ninjas who had bought pancakes from me were about to arrive at the war zone, and they gathered together for dinner and had a small pancake party.
After that, I had trouble keeping up with orders, so I hired a few people and started mass production, and in the last few months before the war ended, my net profit increased enough to release an S-level mission.
So I opened my first store and started buying stuff from manufacturers all over the land of the fire country through quests and selling it in Konoha.
Meanwhile, as I was about to leave the prime age range to become a ninja, Danzo made another attempt and tried to slander me by poisoning my produce.
When I was about to lose my job because of the rumors, I put a big apology sign on the door of my store and said that it was my negligence. Then I distributed 90% of all my assets to orphans who lost their families in the war.
Well, of course, this was not enough to defeat Danzo, the owner of the darkness of the village, but Sarutobi would have warned Danzo, and the rumors in the village disappeared, and I was able to regain my reputation.
Moreover, thanks to this incident, there was no one in the village who hadn't heard of me.
So I somehow made it this far.
I was no longer an Uzumaki boy, I was a young and rich store owner known as Uzumaki Eren.
So I had managed to organize my whole life, I was bringing products from many countries and selling them in Konoha, and I had made plans to get away from Konoha in case of future disasters.
Do I really need a system now?
2 hours later:
"Okay, I agree, please come back. I need you. Please don't leave me. I have enough milk here for you."
[System connection successful]
[Loading first template]
For the last two hours, I had been telling the system about how I had spent my days in Konoha in his absence, when suddenly the system gave an error and disappeared, and I realized that having a system was the same thing as being the main character.
For a moment, I thought I had lost my system because of my indiscretion.
[This is how this system works: The system gives you templates and assigns you missions related to the character that comes out of the template. Based on how well you imitate the template and the missions you do during the time you have the template, the system will eventually give you a percentage grade. The closer your grade is to 100%, the more abilities you can get permanently from the template. But if your final grade is less than 50%, you will be punished by the system.]
"Wait a minute. Are you that kind of system? God damn it! What if the template I have to imitate is a homosexual or a woman? Isn't that a sure loss?"
[You can change gender at any time, host]
"You can talk too. I just fucked up!"
[First template uploaded]
[Template]
[Trader Rekt, from 7 Days to Die]
[Tips for Trader Rekt]
[Don't waste my time]
[Try anythings funny, and you're dead]
[No ching ching? Then get the hell out of my store]
[First task: Trader Rekt never has employees in his store. A message from Trader Rekt: "Trust nobody, not even yourself"]
[Countdown to complete the first mission: 24 hours]
Okay, apparently, the system is angry at me for not accepting it right away and is trying to get my store shut down.
Well, after a short hesitation, I had to bow my head in front of the system and I looked back towards the other people working in my shop.
Even though I thought everything was fine, I also had some difficult moments, especially during the third battle.
During the third war, as usual, I was sending ninjas to fetch supplies from the surrounding villages. Since the people I sent were indirectly controlling the security of the surrounding villages and the pancakes I made had become a symbol, the village government was supportive of my missions.
But after a while, there was an abnormal death rate among the ninja who went on my missions.
Although Sarutabi Hiruzen later said that a spy ninja had leaked my trading habits outside the village, nothing would bring back the family of the little boy who lost both his father and mother because of me.
When I remembered how the boy I was now supporting had come to me during his first year of ninja school and told me everything, I remembered once again that I needed to harden my gaze and grow stronger.
"System, how long will it take me to finish with a template?"
[The rarity rating of the template you pulled is only one star. If your template similarity never reaches 100%, the template results will be automatically calculated after 2 months]
"What if it's 100%?"
[A protocol is in place to protect the mental health of the server. If the server reaches 100% in template similarity and does not drop below 95% for the next three days, the template will end early and the server will win the best rewards]
This is comforting news.
With the good news from the system, I left my room at the back of my store and came to the main hall, where various products were being sold.
"PEOPLE, FOCUS HERE"
At my loud reminder, all the employees all over my store poked their heads out from behind the aisles and looked in my direction. With only ten minutes to go before the store opened, everyone was busy organizing the merchandise.
The store I owned was a combination of three small stores taken from one of the most central locations in Konoha. It was almost bigger than the Yakiniku Q barbecue restaurant in terms of interior size.
I took a deep breath and continued speaking out loud.
"You're all fired."
[Template similarity rate +10]
|■----------------|
As soon as the cruel words left my mouth, the system screen appeared in the corner of my vision.
Meanwhile, I paid little attention to the system and quietly looked at my employees. After a while, my employees realized the seriousness of my words.
After they saw that I wasn't joking, the expected reactions started to come.
A lady employee, who I knew was supporting two children on her own, looked at me with anger hidden in the depths of her eyes, and without hesitation, she took quick steps and left the store.
In her hand was a parcel of pulses that she had just put on the shelves. Maybe, like a real cheapskate, I should have kept an eye even on the parcel she was holding and stopped her and told her to put it down, but, after all, I'm not a robot. And more importantly...
*a loud crashing sound coming from right in front of the store*
I don't want her to smash that parcel in my face.
Anyway, that woman has a natural talent for math and I am sure she can find a new job without any problem.
Meanwhile, other people started to react.
Naturally, I chose to ignore the questions I received, usually in the form of confusion mixed with swear words.
What was I supposed to tell them, that they were a bunch of useless people and that there wasn't a single one of them worth keeping around? Nonsense. Many of them were found here and I tried very hard to steal them from other places.
I hope the system pays me enough so that I don't feel bad about what I've done.
"If you had told me that you only wanted to fire me, I would have understood, but to decide to fire everyone at the same time and not give any explanation? That's irresponsible, my child. It's their right to be angry with you."
Trying to ignore them, I went to such extremes that I didn't even realize that Uncle Ranubi was right under my nose.
He was the one who set up my first store with me, but over time I came to the fore with my skills and bought his rights in the store. Of course, it was not a war and he has been the manager of my store ever since.
"Don't worry, I'm not crazy. You of all people should know that I aim for the long term in everything I do. In fact, I suggest you use this as a message to start eating your savings before you die."
"Hahaha. Cheeky as always and not doubting yourself. You put my mind at ease. Farewell little Eren."
I watched his back in silence until he walked out the door of the store. And when I turned my head again I saw a young boy standing there silently watching me. Hmm, even though he's talented, he's probably the one who needs money the most of all my employees. After all, he has a bedridden grandfather to take care of.
When our eyes met, I gave him a warning without giving him any hope. He's learned a lot since he's been here. And he thinks I didn't notice, but I know that he's becoming friends with a few of my trade contacts. He acts like me and he's talented enough.
He would have taken my cue when he and a few others who had planned to talk to me after him headed for the door.
"Move!"
Before I could react to the sound coming from behind me, I hit the shelf next to me with a hard shoulder blow. The shelf on which the milk packages and some other drinks were lined up was of course shattered by my impact and a cocktail of many drinks spilled on me.
If I had to describe the smell of this cocktail in one word, I would say it smells of anger...
Fucking asshole. It was my fault for hiring him, even though he's an idiot with nothing but brawn.
That doesn't mean I'm going to let him get away with it.
...
A few minutes later everyone else left the store.
Of course, the last ones didn't leave without any problems. Before leaving, one of my lazy employees, who does nothing but work, cursed me profusely about why I fired them this morning and not the night before.
Knowing that he could sleep until noon instead of waking up early this morning probably upset him more than being fired.
Anyway, it is not for nothing that it is said that the first person who chose to swear instead of arguing is the founder of civilization, right? I am also a person who sometimes swears, so it doesn't hurt me to hear swearing.
Of course, not all of them chose to ignore my kindness like ordinary human beings and some of them left the store silently or by thanking me for the past.
Hmm...
Just because they left quietly doesn't mean they plan to come back tonight and blow my neck off, does it?
Nah, I'm just overthinking.
I wonder if the last person left the store door open when they left. It feels too cold in here.
[Congratulations on completing your first template task]
[Remember host, tasks are only there to increase your template similarity]