Chapter 23: Chapter 23 : The First Deal
Over the next few days, he had his shadow clone spy on the shopkeeper. Genki's training for stealth was really helpful during this period. His name was Ging. He was probably in his 40s. The clone observed his actions and his movements to see whether he is a hidden ninja. He had already tried to sense his chakra, it was merely at the civilian level. Fujin wondered if at some point in the past, Konoha conducted a drive to unlock chakra of a lot of people. He also observed his dealings with other customers, where he keeps his inventory, where he keeps his cash and so on.
The spying was quite successful as on one lucky instance, he heard Ging bargaining with his supplier on the price of some of the items. On hearing them talk, he understood that the supplier sold an Explosion tag to him for 500 Ryo and Storage Scroll for 1,200 each, while he sold the storage scroll for 1,500 Ryo and the Explosion tags for 750 Ryo to his customers.
After being sure that he was a safe target, he sent his shadow clone with the 5 scrolls. His clone took the appearance of a middle-aged man and approached Ging when no one was in his shop. On seeing him approach, Ging put up a kind smile and said, "Hello, what do you want to buy?"
Fujin's clone replied, "Hello, I'm not here to buy, but to sell."
Hearing that, Ging was quite surprised. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Sell? Who are you?"
Fujin's clone replied, "You can call me Zoro."
Ging noticed the fact that the man in front of him asked him to call that. He then asked, "What do you want to sell?"
Fujin's clone paused for a moment, and stared in his eyes. He then said, "Storage Scrolls"
Ging, trying to gain an upper hand in any negotiations, said dismissively "I already have 3 suppliers for storage scrolls, why should I buy from you?"
Fujin's clone smirked and replied, "Because my scrolls are better"
That statement got Ging interested. He asked, "How? And I'll inspect your scroll first before buying from you."
Fujin's clone maintained his smirk and replied, "Suit yourself" and handed him a scroll. Ging took the scroll and invited him to a room inside the shop. On the way, he asked "So what's the name of your company and who is the person in-charge of it?" However, he was dismissively answered with "You don't need to concern yourself with it." Hearing that Ging thought, 'Oh, a secret organisation? So either he is someone who doesn't want anyone to know that he can make storage scrolls, or he has a secret organisation behind him which probably does some shady work. Hehe, I'll make a ton of profits from this sheep!'
On reaching the room, Ging started inspecting the scroll. Fujin clone's claim wasn't empty. A standard storage scroll has 10 storage seals in it. However the one he made had 12 seals in it. When he saw Ging inspecting the scroll, Fujin's clone thought, 'It isn't difficult to make 12 seals in a single scroll. You just have to draw the seals closer to each other. Actually, if anyone wants to make an optimal storage scroll while keeping the size of the scroll the same, then he could make 25 seals in the scroll. However, for the ones who mass produce these seals 10 is the optimal number. The reason is that many buyers don't need more than 10 seals in a scroll. And for the ones who want more, the producers would profit more if they bought more scrolls. It also resulted in less effort needed to make the scroll. So it had become an optimal number for them to make maximum profits. However, I don't have any such restrictions. I just want to make some money to continue practicing Fuinjutsu.'
On looking at the number of seals in the scroll, Ging had similar thoughts. However, he could also think even further than Fujin as he had a lot more experience and information. He analyzed, 'While just having 2 more seals might not seem such a big deal to normal people, but I know the ninjas who want to buy scrolls having more storage seals in them. Just last week one jounin was talking about the convenience of having a storage scroll with more seals. I can sell this scroll to him for a much higher price. Probably even over 2,000 Ryo.'
Then he looked at Fujin and thought, 'Now the only question is whether he is aware of its value or not.'
After a few moments his expression became unpleasant and he angrily said, "Your scrolls only have 2 seals more! And the quality of each seal is the same as others. 10 seals are already more than enough for a single scroll. I will buy it from you, however I'll pay you the same price as I pay to my suppliers."
Knowing the kind of guy the shopkeeper was, Fujin's clone smirked again and said, "Now now, we both know that ain't true. There are too many ninjas who will willingly buy scrolls with more seals."
Ging, however, dismissively replied, "Yes, but they won't be willing to pay higher. Still seeing that you could add 2 more seals, I'll pay you a bit more. Instead of 1,000 Ryo, I'll pay you 1,100 Ryo."
Hearing that, Fujin's clone scoffed and said, "Do you think I live under a mountain? The standard scrolls are supplied for around 1,200 to 1,250 Ryo. Even if you consider the least at 1,200 Ryo, just considering that it has 20% higher seals would raise the price to 1,440 Ryo. Not to mention the fact that some ninjas might be willing to pay more."
Hearing that put a lot of pressure on Ging. He internally sighed at the numbers thrown by the other party. The haggling continued for a few more minutes. Ging took advantage of the fact that the opposite party wasn't willing to reveal his origins and used that point to decrease the buying price to 1,150 Ryo.
After the haggling was over, Fujin's clone thought, 'Sigh, that was some intense haggling. This fellow is much better at haggling than me. But either way, while he may think that he made a profit, just being able to sell these scrolls for over 1,000 Ryo each is more than enough for me.'
He then smirked internally, thinking 'Well I still have one more advantage to play. While he may be a better haggler, I have the advantage of being the lone supplier of the 12 seals storage scrolls. Hehe, I am so interested in looking at his final decision.'
After deciding the price to be 1,150 Ryo, Ging asked, "So Zoro, how many scrolls do you have to sell?"
Fujin's clone didn't reply, instead he placed 4 scrolls in front of him. Looking at that, Ging was at a loss of words. He thought, 'Just four? So including the one I inspected, there are only 5? What is he playing at?'
Seeing that the seller wasn't saying anything further, he showed an enraged expression and asked angrily, "Only 5? You wasted all my time for only 5 scrolls?"
Fujin's clone calmly replied, "The boss has sent a few like me to other shopkeepers to sell it too. Depending upon the price each shopkeeper gives for these scrolls, the future sales to those shops will be decided."
After hearing that, Ging's expression was really a sight to see. Fujin's clone had a laugh internally. It was the first time in their negotiation that Ging had lost his composure.
Fujin's clone's thoughts were, 'While I don't necessarily need a higher price, doing this would cast much lesser doubts on me. Also the existence of a boss behind me will keep this fellow from going overboard.'
Ging however got lost in his thoughts, 'Damn! What to do now? By buying one scroll for 1,150 Ryo, I probably won't get any more scrolls from him in the future. But if I pay high, and others still pay higher, then I still might not get any in the future. Still though, a boss and more people like him? Are they trying to change the whole storage scrolls market?'
He thought for a bit more and then asked, "Will you be selling all your scrolls to only the one who buys it for the highest price, or others as well?"
Fujin's clone replied, "We will be selling it to many shopkeepers. Only the amount of scrolls we sell to them would depend on the prices they offer. Of course, the ones who offer lower than average might not get any. But I'm not privy to the exact plans."
Ging analysed for a minute and then sighed. He thought, 'Buying it for a low price would mean killing the goose that drops the golden eggs. But how much should I buy it for? I don't want to pay a lot for it. Otherwise my profits won't be enough. Let me go with 1,500 Ryo. That should be enough to earn higher off them than normal storage scrolls.'
He then offered a price of 1,500 Ryo per scroll. They completed their deal and talked a bit about how and when future deals would happen. Fujin's clone walked out of the shop with 7,500 Ryo. He handed the money to Fujin in an alleyway while he wandered off a bit and dispelled himself after confirming that there was no one around.
After looking at the cash, Fujin's thoughts were, 'Wow, am I really that good at negotiating?' However after getting his clone's memories back, he thought, 'Nope, I am probably closer to a novice rather than a master. It was just that the final bluff was too much of a temptation for him to ignore. Probably, he also thought that a powerful organisation might be behind me, which threatened him a bit. Well whatever, this is good cash! I should consider selling scrolls often to him.'
He then went to a few other shops under different disguises to buy materials. He bought 30 bottles of ink, 25 scrolls and 200 blank paper tags.
The blank paper tags cost 10 Ryo each. So in all he spent 6,500 Ryo on the materials. He then bought some meat and returned home. He thought, 'Now that I do have some cash, I should definitely increase my meat consumption. The meat business here is entirely dominated by the Akimichi clan. All the shops which sell meat belong to them. I wonder if it is because they are good at it due to economy of scale, or if they were given monopoly over this business when they joined Konoha.'
After that day, Fujin began learning other seals too. He learnt a few basic ones like Heat Seal, Cool Seal, Hard Seal, Soft Seal, Shock Seal and Wet Seal. These seals used elemental symbols. However the number of symbols required was much lower as compared to a storage seal as these did very basic things.
The heat seal could only be used to warm a room. While the Cool seal absorbed heat from the surroundings to make the room cooler. Shock seal could apply a small electric shock, but it was very harmless too as Fujin could bear that shock without any issue. Hard seal was used to harden a surface or an object whereas Soft seal did the reverse. Wet seal was used to gather the moisture from the air and make the surface it had been stuck to wet. All these seals had to be made on a paper tag, and to use it, it would have to be applied on a surface and be activated.
The elemental seals had a requirement of the creator being able to use those elements. But since these seals were very basic, he could do it despite not having mastered fire, water and lightning natures. In all it took him 4 and half months to learn all these seals.
During this time, he also started selling 20 storage scrolls to Ging every month for 30,000 Ryo. He kept the amount low so that the major suppliers of storage scrolls won't be annoyed by him and try to find him. On the other hand, Ging was very happy too as he could sell these scrolls for around 2,300 Ryo.
By the time 3rd year's exams were up, Fujin had saved over 100,000 Ryo!
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