Ren strolled through the streets of the capital city, happily humming under his nose as he observed his surroundings. So many different people walked the streets. It was quite fascinating.

Looking to his right, Ren could see two samurai patrolling the streets and glaring at some yakuza-looking guys who skulked back into back alleys under the samurais’ gazes.

The whole street was full of common people of all kinds. Street vendors advertising their wares, street urchins looking for a good target for theft, common people from the city flooding the streets, and country-bumpkin peasants who were gawking at everything much like Ren but in a much less subtle fashion. It was very lively.

Here and there, Ren could even see ninjas. For example, further along the street, standing in a line for a yakitori stand were four people chatting with each other. Three sixteen-year-old teenagers and one woman in her early thirties.

Ren momentarily stopped and furrowed his eyebrows as he observed the genin team from Konoha. He didn’t recognize these people even though they were the same age as him. They were probably from a different class.

It made him relieved. His only disguise was civilian clothes so meeting somebody from Konoha who knew his face would be extremely awkward and unlucky. Such a thing was not likely to happen because Konoha was quite a big city. But the risk still existed.

Ren didn’t exactly have permission to be here, after all. But what is a little treason before lunchtime?

He hoped this mindset would not come to kick him in the ass one day…

But telling ninjas apart in a crowd was not that hard. At least if they were on an official assignment. There was the forehead protector, but even then, if a ninja took it off, they rarely changed their footwear. Ren only needed to look at their feet and check if they had blue sandals on.

It always tripped Ren up. Why sandals? Wouldn’t steel-tipped shoes be better? But once he started practicing with chakra, he understood.

They were very convenient. Due to the open parts, it was much easier to use chakra with them. The feet were already the hardest place to focus chakra into. Trying to push it through the boots to stick on a tree or walk on water would just add another layer of difficulty for somebody learning how to do these things. A layer that didn’t need to be there this early in their training.

Sandals were kind of like a crutch to make it easier on the kids and because they had to wear it literally for years during their childhood and learning phase, ninjas were usually too used to them and stuck with them for life.

Frankly, the sandal makers were probably drowning in money in Konoha.

Of course, ninjas were not stupid. If they were on a secret mission or were doing something where disguise and stealth were necessary, they would take the sandals off. Once experienced enough, it didn’t really matter if they wore sandals or boots or whatever other kind of shoes. They could use the chakra anyway so they could disguise themselves properly.

Ren had a detection seal in his pocket and it was pinging him quite often. It only did so when detecting genin and up levels of chakra. And this whole city was surprisingly full of people who fell into that category.

From time to time, when Ren paid proper attention to observing his surroundings, he could see people hiding in the shadows, or standing on rooftops just for a second before disappearing, or feel a very observant gaze pass him in the crowd, which made his instincts flare.

Clearly, the capital city was not as simple as it looked at first glance.

Ren was glad he didn’t go for some elaborate disguise. That would probably get him the attention of all these eyes in the shadows. He really didn’t need that.

It was a less-known fact among the young people in Konoha but the Konoha ninjas were not the only ninja force in the country. They didn’t teach this at the academy. In fact, weirdly enough, they didn’t teach much about other forces outside of ninja villages at the academy. It was all ‘Konoha is glorious’ this, or ‘serving the village is an honor’ that. Or ‘other villages are the creation of the Devil! Burn them with the will of fire!’.

They washed them brains well. But then again, they had decades of experience.

From what Ren remembered, the only thing about other forces the academy teachers told the kiddies was that they should not antagonize samurai.

There were other ninja clans who did not join Konoha after its creation. Clans that were already sworn in service to this or that noble family for life couldn’t just tell their lords ‘toodles’ and leave. They were usually small clans and their only mission in life was to protect and work for their lord but there were quite a lot of them all over the country.

The Daimyo also had ninja clans under his command. Several of them. And as the Daimyo, he had the necessary resources to help them in their ninja training. His ninjas were no pushovers. Ren wouldn’t be surprised if the Daimyo had one or two S-rank ninjas somewhere in his pocket.

His ninjas didn’t do mercenary work like Konoha ninjas did. They focused on protecting the capital city and the Daimyo family. And since the Daimyo stayed in the capital most of the time, these ninjas were pretty much irrelevant outside of this city.

Maybe that’s why the academy instructors did not teach the children about them?

Ren frowned at that thought as he reached his goal, a small restaurant where he was having a meeting with a merchant in like five minutes… ago.

Ren jolted as he realized he spent so much time gawking at the city and its people that he was late. With a wry smile, he entered the restaurant and was led to a booth with a ginger-haired man, a true rarity in this world, who gave him a grumpy, almost Irish-looking scowl upon seeing him.

Nevertheless, the man stood up and slightly bowed before starting his introduction, “I am Ren Ishi. The head of the Ishiren trading company. You wanted to present me a ‘lucrative product’?” He impatiently asked, quoting what Ren wrote in his letter to the man,

Ren just smiled, slightly apologetically at being late, “Yes. My name is Ren.” His lips almost twitched into a smile. But that would only infuriate the man more so he refrained.

The man’s name was one of the reasons he chose his trading company for this. It was a good cover for him. If he struck it rich with the products he was going to introduce, the company could just say that ‘Ren made it’ and most people would conveniently misunderstand which Ren.

After all, being an orphan without a last name had its advantages. Especially since there were thousands of Rens in this world. Ren had to make use of it at least in some fashion, no?

“Go on, then. Wow me.” The merchant Ren snorted and crossed his hands across his chest. Despite his acting, Ren could clearly see that the man was properly evaluating him with his eyes. And considering that Ren went for an inconspicuous civilian look, the merchant was probably not very impressed.

“My business with you has to do with…” Ren sat down, and used a dramatic pause in his speech as he put a scroll with drawings on the table, “board games!”

Well… he had to start somewhere!

If Jirayia could get money by writing porn, Ren could exploit the kids and leverage his knowledge of board games from his previous life to earn himself a fortune. This world was seriously lacking in fun things to do for kids.

Sure, that Hikaru kid from the movies had even a gaming console. But that was only something the richest could afford at this time. It was not widespread by any means. There were some card games and board games. But they mostly had to do with gambling, not something parents wanted their kids to learn.

Usually, kids learn crafts, work in fields, or focus on their studies in this world. It depended on what social class and place one was born in. Cheap games that even normal people could afford were definitely something that could sell well in Ren’s opinion.

Sure, he would love to bring something more important into this world. Like new alcoholic beverages. Or a steam engine. Or… okay his mind was drawing blanks.

The problem was that he had no idea how to make beverages or how to construct the steam engine. But board games and card games? He remembered some of them. Some that this world did not have. He decided he could start with these.

Ren was already keeping most of his money in a storage scroll. But it would be nice to have a proper legal account with legal money that could be traced back and wasn’t tied to Konoha. This was just one of his contingencies in case he needed to leg it out of Konoha.

The merchant, Ren Ishi, threw Ren a skeptical look but since he was already here, he sighed and decided to take a look at the drawings.

Ren could just tell. This was the beginning of a beautiful mutually beneficial relationship.

… And if it didn’t work? Well, he could always go the Jiraiya route and write some smut. After all, how hard could that be?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep