Chapter 16: Laoganma Fast Food

Time flows like water, and years pass like a shuttle. Two months have gone by. During this period, Naruto has cycled through five homeroom teachers, earning him a massive wave of experience points. Although each time was due to the teachers’ mental breakdown following one of Naruto’s pranks, Naruto maintained his innocence: "I’m just an innocent bystander; every teacher is targeting me!"

Today, a new homeroom teacher is arriving. As soon as he arrives, Naruto’s prank experience points will be secured. With those 500 points in hand, he will be able to unlock the Mangekyo Sharingan by tonight. This Mangekyo is truly elusive! For the past two months, Naruto has racked his brain for countless ways to upgrade his Sharingan, yet he has found no method to do it on his own. The skill description contains only a small line of text: "Only intense emotional fluctuations can upgrade this skill."

"Are you kidding me, bro?" Naruto wondered. "What exactly counts as an 'intense emotional fluctuation'?" Naruto concluded, "I just can't do it." Internally, he has mastered Wood Release and is currently practicing other chakra attributes through permutations and combinations; his progress is so fast he’s practically dizzy with joy. However, the system does not count this as an intense fluctuation. Externally, Naruto is no longer the lonely, ostracized child; he has friends. The steady, flowing nature of friendship certainly doesn't qualify as an intense fluctuation. Naruto truly couldn't find any situation within himself that could trigger such a reaction. His talent had finally met a formidable enemy: it was constrained by the rules.

Therefore, Naruto had no choice but to grind for levels with experience points. Over these two months, he has been frantically completing various side quests, just to obtain the Mangekyo as soon as possible. Today is the day his dream finally comes true.

Early in the morning, as soon as Naruto sat down, Choji approached him to buy potato chips and "happy water." Choji is Naruto’s biggest customer and a good friend. However, even among brothers, accounts are kept clear. After selling some chips and collecting "protection money" from Sasuke, Hinata came over to buy milk tea. Since she fainted last time, this girl has become much more resolute. This change is a good thing, except that every time she comes to buy milk tea, she looks at Naruto with shifty eyes and a blushing face. At first, Naruto thought there might be something stuck on his face. After it happened several times, he began to suspect: "Does this girl have a crush on me?" Naruto wanted to tell her directly: "Don't bother, it’s impossible between us. I only like girls aged 18 to 25; you’re too young, and I have zero interest."

But Naruto was also afraid of being presumptuous. If he said that out loud, it would be incredibly awkward.

*Ring, ring!* The class bell rang. Iruka Umino had just pushed the door open when he was doused by a bucket of water. Naruto’s transformation technique combined with his summoning jutsu was simply unstoppable and worked every time.

"Who did this? Who would pull such a prank?"
"Teacher, it was Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto gave the speaker a deep look. *You kid, it’s always you.*

"Naruto, you..." Hearing the name, Iruka was quite angry. Naruto Uzumaki was the troublemaker of Class 1, having driven away five previous teachers. However, he suddenly remembered the advice an experienced teacher gave him before he arrived: "Naruto? Just deal with him as best you can. Keep things steady and don't stir up trouble. He's just a kid; as long as you don't actively provoke him, he’ll naturally keep his distance." That teacher was an elite who had trained geniuses like Itachi Uchiha, and Iruka, being a rookie, figured the advice should hold up.

Thinking this, Iruka suddenly calmed down, walked to the podium, and began his introduction. "Good morning. Let me introduce myself first. Starting today..."

Naruto thought he was about to be sent to stand in the corner, but it ended just like that? For real? "A 'tactical ignorance' strategy?" Naruto muttered. Well, he could accept that. Ignorance was better than hostility. At any rate, the experience points were in the bag.

"Choji."
"Hmm?" Choji, busy eating chips, looked at Shikamaru.
"How long do you think this teacher will last?"
"Probably for a very, very long time."
"Hmm?" Shikamaru didn't believe it at all. The previous five were driven away, so why would this one be different?
"Wanna bet? Let's set the limit at... no, three months," Shikamaru proposed.
Choji agreed decisively. "Sure. The stake is that new 'Old Godfather' fast-food place. I want a Family Bucket." Shikamaru didn't understand Naruto, but Choji did. Naruto was the type who wouldn't bother you if you didn't bother him. Since the teacher wasn't bothering him, Naruto naturally wouldn't take the initiative to act.

"Hey, you two, show some respect. I’m still standing right here," Naruto said, speechless.

The rest of the time went exactly as Choji predicted—everything remained peaceful. After school, Choji insisted on dragging Shikamaru to the Old Godfather fast-food joint. He said he wanted to reserve a Family Bucket. Naruto walked with them halfway before splitting off to head home.

The "Old Godfather" fast-food joint—the name sounded like something Naruto would come up with. And it was, though not run by Naruto himself. Nobody would come to a shop run by him. This shop was managed by one of Naruto’s shadow clones using the Transformation Technique. It was a Wood Release clone—corporeal, functional, and difficult to detect. The products were, naturally, the fast-food series from a gaming crossover: fried chicken, burgers, fries, happy water, and the classic Family Bucket. These could all be bought in the system mall, and he simply doubled the price for resale. After all, the prices in the system mall were generally quite low.

The flagship "Old Godfather" store currently had a net profit of about 5,000 ryo per day—a handsome sum. If one store made a net profit of 150,000 ryo a month, then a hundred stores would earn 15 million ryo monthly! That was enough to buy all nine Tailed Beasts! Naruto did the math. A hundred stores wouldn't even cover the entire Land of Fire.

Additionally, Naruto discovered that these clones shared the same inventory with his main body. This meant that items he placed in his inventory could be retrieved by a clone at a different location. What is this, if not cross-dimensional teleportation? With this, he no longer feared opening shops in different regions. The inventory's functionality didn't stop there; items inside didn't spoil, and each slot could stack up to 9,999 units—it was a dream warehouse. Furthermore, the game’s built-in team chat was a powerful business tool. It required no external equipment and could directly ignore spatial obstacles for face-to-face communication. With this, even though clones couldn't access the mall, Naruto could place an order in the mall and put it into the inventory with just a single message.

At this point, Naruto suddenly realized that this game had so many loopholes to exploit. It was rather interesting. However, to truly expand the fast-food model, Naruto needed to solve the problem of his clones becoming "real." Otherwise, once the business expanded, any attack on a clone would expose his Wood Release. Naruto was currently exploring how to resolve this, and he had a hunch that the solution lay within the power of Yang Release.