Chapter 33: TIER 3 UNLOCKED
The Uchiha Cafe was packed to the breaking point.
Ever since Tsunade Senju walked into the shop and aggressively endorsed the tea, the rumor mill in Konoha had gone into overdrive. The village elite didn’t know the exact details of Nawaki’s survival, but they knew the greatest medical ninja alive had just staked her reputation on a thirteen-year-old’s business.
That was all the marketing Ren needed.
By noon, the line for the Diamond Lounge stretched out the door and down the street. Bureaucrats, wealthy merchants, and off-duty Jonin practically shoved each other out of the way to pay absurdly inflated prices just to sit at a table.
Behind the counter, Ren was a blur of calculated efficiency, ringing up orders and sliding exact change across the wood. In the kitchen, Kenji was sweating through his uniform, cooking at a frantic pace, while Sayuri practically sprinted between tables with trays of food. They were drowning in customers.
Across the street, crouching perfectly still on a shaded rooftop, were two masked Root operatives.
They had been watching the cafe for three days straight. Danzo had briefed them personally. He told them the target was an S-rank threat, a master manipulator, and a potential Mangekyō Sharingan user who could bend reality. They were ordered to look for hidden chakra spikes, secret Uchiha training grounds, or subtle genjutsu traps.
Instead, they were watching a teenager aggressively yell at his kitchen staff about milk-to-tea ratios.
"Sensor report," the Root captain whispered, keeping his eyes locked on Ren through a pair of high-powered binoculars.
"Nothing," the second operative replied, sounding deeply stressed. "His chakra coils are completely dormant. He hasn’t used a single hand seal. He’s just... taking orders and counting coins. He’s acting exactly like a normal civilian."
"Don’t let your guard down," the captain hissed, sweating under his porcelain mask. "Lord Danzo said his civilian act is a flawless cover. The fact that he looks harmless just proves how dangerous his genjutsu really is. Keep watching."
Inside the cafe, completely unaware that he was being treated like the second coming of Madara Uchiha, Ren was entirely focused on the bottom line.
At 9:00 PM, the last customer finally left. Ren locked the front door, flipped the sign to ’CLOSED’, and walked into the back office. He dumped a massive canvas bag of silver and paper bills onto his desk.
Seven-year-old Itachi was sitting in the corner, tallying the day’s expenses in his ledger.
"Gross revenue is up four hundred percent since Tsunade-sama’s visit," Itachi reported, his dark eyes scanning the numbers. "We have successfully captured the upper-class demographic. But Kenji and Sayuri are exhausted. We are operating beyond maximum capacity."
"I know," Ren said, wiping his brow.
He placed his hand flat against the mountain of cash.
"System," Ren murmured under his breath. "Convert liquid assets."
The massive pile of physical money vanished into his inventory. In the dim light of the office, the glowing blue system interface projected into the air in front of him, entirely invisible to Itachi.
[ASSETS CONVERTED.][CURRENT BALANCE: 110,500 BC]
A loud, triumphant chime echoed in Ren’s head.
[CUMULATIVE REVENUE MILESTONE REACHED.][UPGRADING SYSTEM...]
[TIER 3 UNLOCKED.]
Ren leaned forward, a sharp grin spreading across his face.
Tier 1 had given him his basic ingredients. Tier 2 had given him cold-storage tech and emergency medical items. He fully expected Tier 3 to offer advanced security features, maybe weapons, or high-level ninja tools to protect his growing monopoly.
The blue screen shifted, revealing the new catalog.
Ren blinked. There were no weapons. There were no combat boosts.
[NEW BLUEPRINTS UNLOCKED: COSMETICS & HYGIENE TREE]
[Item: Luxury Floral Soap Press]
[Item: Essential Oil Extraction Kit]
[Item: High-End Skincare Formula (Jasmine & Sandalwood)]
[Item: Premium Glass Packaging Template]
Ren stared at the floating blue text.
For a second, he was disappointed. He was living in a militarized village in the middle of a global war, and the system was offering him bath products.
But then, the cold, calculating CEO brain kicked in. He didn’t look at the screen like a ninja. He looked at it like a tycoon. He swiped away the invisible interface and turned to his little brother.
"Itachi," Ren said, crossing his arms. "I’ve finalized our next product line. We are expanding beyond food and tea."
Itachi set his pen down. "What is the new asset?"
"Hygiene," Ren stated. "We are going to manufacture and sell high-end cosmetics. Scented floral soaps, essential skin oils, and luxury perfumes."
Itachi frowned slightly, his genius brain instantly running the local economic data.
"Brother, with all due respect, that is a terrible investment," Itachi said bluntly. "The village logistics depot already distributes standard lye soap to all shinobi and civilians for three ryo a bar. It is dirt cheap. The profit margins on hygiene are practically zero. No one is going to buy expensive soap during a war."
"You’re thinking like a quartermaster, Itachi," Ren smirked, leaning against the desk. "Let me ask you a question. What does this village smell like?"
Itachi blinked. "Blood. Sweat. Iron weapons. And the harsh antiseptic bleach they use at the hospital."
"Exactly," Ren nodded. "Konoha is a military camp. The men don’t care, but think about the kunoichi. Think about the noblewomen trapped behind these walls. They are surrounded by death, dirt, and stress all day long. They hate it."
Ren started pacing the small office, the pieces rapidly falling into place.
"Tsunade is a legendary Sannin, but she’s still a woman who has to scrub hospital bleach off her hands every night. Our mother is a clan head’s wife, but she buys her soap from the same generic supply depot that issues rations to Genin," Ren explained, his eyes wide with capitalist realization. "Vanity isn’t a luxury, Itachi. In a high-stress, ugly environment, vanity is a psychological escape. And right now, we have absolutely zero competitors."
Itachi’s eyes slowly widened as he understood the angle. "You don’t want to sell them soap to get clean. You want to sell them status."
"I want to sell them a monopoly," Ren corrected. "Food keeps them coming in the door. But luxury cosmetics? That is a high-margin consumable. They wash it down the drain, and then they are forced to come right back to me to buy more."
Ren looked at the empty space in the office, his mind racing with logistics.
"But we have a major bottleneck," Ren muttered, tapping his chin. "We can’t manufacture this with three people. Kenji and Sayuri are already stretched to the limit just running the cafe floor. If we want to extract essential oils and press soap, we need an entirely separate division. We need a corporate restructure."
Itachi readied his pen. "What do you need?"
"Post a mass hiring notice tomorrow morning," Ren ordered. "I need civilian workers for the cafe floor, and I need a secure, disciplined workforce for the basement laboratory. On top of that, we need to order bulk raw materials immediately. Write this down: I need fifty pounds of animal fat, a massive shipment of floral extracts, and a hundred pounds of highly concentrated lye."
Outside, on the rooftop, the Root captain was carefully reading Ren’s lips through his binoculars. His blood ran cold.
"Target is pacing," the captain whispered frantically into his radio, his heart pounding against his ribs. "He is preparing a new operation. He just ordered his subordinate to begin mass recruitment for a private militia!"
The second operative gripped his kunai tightly, trembling. "What about the supplies?"
"He’s ordering raw animal fats and massive quantities of highly concentrated lye," the captain said, his voice laced with pure dread. "He’s building an underground laboratory. He’s going to manufacture chemical weapons right under the Hokage’s nose!"
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