The First Customer

Once Masashi got up at 6 once more, he took a shower and put on a long-sleeved black shirt with his flak jacket over it. After putting on black cargo pants he heads into the kitchen for more ramen.

This time though he looked in the fridge and saw bottles of Sake along with juice and water.

Considering he is about to go out and sell his manga, maybe getting a little buzzed will make him more sociable.

Grabbing the bottle, he uncorks it and takes a quick swig.

He drinks this pretty often considering the multiple bottles and Masashi could be said to be somewhat of an alcoholic. Nothing disruptive to his life, but all his free time is typically watching TV and drinking.

The first thing he does is pull up his laptop on the couch and with the Illustrative Creation section he creates a banner: "Demon Slayer Manga". Masashi had the logo on it along with the iconic Hinokami Kagura visual effects woven between the letters and around the banner with a dragon head. A nice easter egg for when the novel reaches that scene with Rui.

Thinking back to his earlier thoughts, he created small cutout characters from the volume and tucked them into each volume on a random page. Gotta start the collectibles somehow.

Wanting to make the first volume he sells special, he went to the Manga Creation tab and created a fully colored Volume 1 and a rainbow shiny Tanjiro with his sword out with key characteristics.

This Tanjiro has his Demon Mark manifested and a red blade. Whoever buys it won't really know the significance until later but it'll be a nice surprise. This'll be the only one I'll ever make so perhaps it might be worth some money one day.

The next thing he does is get some sealing scrolls from his closet, realizing that's where he stores most of his things with his limited apparel and starts sealing them within. He realizes that 15 volumes could fit in each so he used 5 of them and inserted them into the front of his flak jacket where the holders are.

Slipping on his shoes, he heads out.

Before he heads over to the market, he needs to cut his hours at the Assignment desk so he makes his way back to the Hokage Tower.

Masashi wishes he thought to do this yesterday, but it slipped his mind.

Once there, he climbs a flight of stairs and opens a door to his left to the Shinobi Affairs Office.

It was empty aside from the clerk so he walked up to him.

"Hello, how can I he—" The clerk looks up and smiles, "Ah, Masashi-san, what can I do for you?" 

Masashi knows that this is Renji who works here most days, so they occasionally see each other and work together.

"Hey Renji-san, I'm here to cut my hours at the desk so I was hoping you could put my request through." He stated his reason for being here with indifference.

Renji raises an eyebrow before laughing.

"Ah, I thought this day may come. Are you gonna try and get back into field work? I did think it was a bit odd you didn't even try and become a squad leader when you were promoted. Would you also like me to put in a request for you to lead some Genin Corp shinobi?" He asks with a smile.

The Genin Corp was hardly explained in the show and manga, but considering the story followed Naruto, it was a bit irrelevant. Those who fail the Jonin test after graduation are sent back to the academy but that's only if the student isn't at the age requirement for graduation, or more to understand easier, if the student doesn't graduate in 6 years, they are sent to the Genin Corp.

These are just glorified paper-pushers and are likely to only reach Chunin at best. Very rarely do they make Jonin, if they even lived that long.

Most Chunin lead Genin Corp shinobi to gain experience in leadership and teaching ability which will help if they ever want to become a Jonin-sensei. This is something that the village is always in demand of.

Renji doesn't know about what has happened to him obviously, but he puts a stop to it.

"No, I'll just be in reserve if I'm truly needed, but I'm opening a business so I don't have time anymore." He responds getting out his ID.

The clerk is shocked, to say the least. While he may not claim to know Masashi very well, he knew at the very least that his colleague didn't have any business experience or connections for that to work. They talk sometimes and he knew that Masashi's parents were shinobi who died in the Fourth Great Shinobi War, so his parents did not pass anything down to him apart from some savings.

"Masashi-san…are you sure? What kind of business is it?" Renji was naturally concerned. He knew that this was a huge decision. Masashi was pretty young and if he worked hard enough he could become a Jonin eventually or at the very least Special-Jonin, so he tried to ask about it.

"An Entertainment business," Masashi responds while handing him his ID.

Renji was bug-eyed, flabbergasted, disorientated…unable to comprehend the words coming out of his mouth.

"M-Masashi…" He unknowingly dropped the honorific, "a…brothel? Those are illegal in Konoha, you know?" Renji completely misunderstood and gave him a troubled look.

Masashi on the other hand felt his eye twitch in irritation.

'Should I not call it an entertainment business? Who immediately jumps to escorts? Why does he have such thoughts so early in the morning? Keep them to yourself!' He was a bit irritated but decided to show him and make this conversation end.

"Entertainment as in comic books, Renji-san." He contemplated being vague and mysterious for laughs but he'd rather not have any rumors of a 16-year-old opening an illegal brothel.

Even if it would be funny.

Renji immediately looked embarrassed. He blushed and started laughing.

"Ah! Hahaha. Of course, that's what you meant! Let me put that request in for you!" He started typing away grabbing the ID so fast that the Fourth Hokage would be impressed. Renji decided to completely change the subject and delete his accusation from his memory. "What kind of comic book is it?"

Well, who is he to deny a potential customer? His previous mood completely flipped.

"A new art style: Manga. It's called Demon Slayer and I'll be opening a stall today to sell them." Masashi explained considering that Renji was a rather chill guy and he often caught him reading at the desk in the past.

If that were to be his manga, would others come into the office asking about it? It's likely, so hopefully he'll get more sales and by that, he means more EC. He's broke in this regard.

This piqued Renji's interest. He is an avid reader of comic books and fiction novels to pass the time, whether that be during a slow day or in his free time.

"Oh really? Perhaps I'll come over after my shift and check it out. I've been meaning to go to the bookstore this week anyway. I hope it doesn't disappoint." He teases handing him back his ID.

Masashi gives a knowing smile.

"It is going to revolutionize comic books." He spoke in a confident tone. One that holds absolute certainty in his success.

Renji's eyes widen slightly. He knew Masashi wasn't an arrogant person. His personality might be a bit introverted and distant but arrogance wasn't something he possessed.

This was complete assurance in his work.

He was a little interested in the sudden career shift and creating this…manga he speaks of, but now he really wants to find out. 

Manga? 

Revolutionary? 

A literature enthusiast must read it at all costs!

Renji gave a slight smile, not challenging his claim. He believes this manga will do the talking for him.

"I'll be seeing you over there then. You're all set Masashi-san. The request has been sent to Hokage-sama." Renji informs him and Masashi puts his ID back in his wallet.

"Thanks Renji-san. I'll see you at the market later." He waves and makes his way to the exit but the door suddenly opens.

A man walks through with short blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker marks on his cheeks.

Masashi's heart immediately jumped and his stomach swirled. A concoction of emotions enveloped him all at once like an explosive reaction. The most prominent emotion being excitement.

He always respected him and revered him before his previous life's memories, but now that he had the whole story…it made him even more of an enigmatic figure in his eyes.

Even if he could be a bit of a dumbass at times, he never thought he'd had such thoughts about the Hokage but it also shows the most exalted are also human. Never thought the founder was a gambler and passed it down to his granddaughter, or that the Second had such a dislike for the Uchiha.

Ah, the Uchiha Massacre was a whole can of worms he didn't want to open. He'd start questioning everything he ever thought he knew about the village, even if Danzo orchestrated it as a false dilemma because there really was no choice for Itachi.

When I get to making the Naruto manga, will there be riots in the streets? Naruto knew of it eventually and never said anything and that's how it'll look to the populace.

That's a problem for future me. 

Naruto walks in right in front of the counter. He had eyebags and generally looked tired as he didn't even recognize my presence, completely moving on autopilot.

"Yo, Renji. What do you got for me?" He asks and Renji bowed.

"Hokage-sama, I have everything for you today." He moves to the bag and grabs a pile of paperwork setting it down on the desk.

Naruto seemed to somehow look more tired than before if that was possible. He glanced at the desk and seemed to wake up a bit. "Thank, Renji," he points to Masashi's request that hasn't been moved yet to the pile, "and this one?"

Renji quickly added it on top.

"Ah, Masashi-san made a request for reduced hours at the Mission Assignment Desk. Starting an entertainment business." He informed respectfully before sitting back down.

"...Masashi?" He looked around and saw the person in question by the door, "Ah, sorry. Long night." He laughs before completely processing what Renji said. "...Entertainment?" He looked at me weirdly.

Renji quickly went to clear up the misunderstanding that was about to happen.

"Comic books or manga, he calls it. Said it would be revolutionary" He explained to the Hokage.

Naruto's eyebrow quirked up before taking a deep look at Masashi. He's not the kind of person to mock or question someone's dream, considering he faced his fair share of ridicule for wanting to become Hokage while being a terrible student and a loudmouth.

He did it though so he didn't dismiss this as empty talk at least without evidence of effort being shown.

Naruto's eyes widen a bit at a sudden realization.

"Oh! You're that Masashi who I promoted a couple of years ago. Well, if that's what you want to do then I'll approve it, but could I see the comic..manga?" Naruto couldn't deny his curiosity at the claim and while nobody, even himself, could say he was a reader, his son was a big fan of them.

Perhaps if he got him one then their relationship would improve by knowing and getting him stuff he likes. He'd heard Sakura talking about that so maybe it'd work. Couldn't hurt, right?

Naruto and Boruto's relationship isn't the best but he's trying, but being Hokage and balancing his family life has been something he always struggled with.

Masashi was a bit taken aback but then he grew excited that perhaps the Hokage would be his first customer. He's bound to talk about it with his friends and then their children could hear about it

"Sure it's in a sealing scroll if that's fine?" He made sure to inform him considering anything could come out of a scroll.

One of his ANBU immediately appeared in front of him with a hand stretched out.

He slowly unclasped the holder and handed it to the shinobi. 

The ANBU immediately moved away and unsealed one volume and out came the one meant for his first customer. The colored version.

Seeing nothing suspicious after flipping through it, although his body language slightly shifted, whether that was because of the quality or the cutout, he handed it to the Hokage.

Naruto looked a bit sheepish and rubbed the back of his head at the cautious nature of his ANBU but said nothing of it as he casually flipped through it with amazement. The ANBU disappeared quietly after handing it off.

"You…made this?" He couldn't help but flip through a few more pages.

"Yeah, I have about 60 more in my other scrolls to sell at the market today. It's 1000ryo each." Masashi explained hoping that he'd take it. 

Naruto couldn't help but balk at the price.

'1000ryo for this? Isn't this a steal? Some of the comics that Boruto gets are around 1500 or 2000 even for special releases.' Naruto had to have it.

"Alright. Thanks, Masashi." Naruto got his wallet out and handed him the bills.

Masashi was ecstatic at this.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. I'll be releasing the next volumes in the coming days, but I have to head over to find a good spot now. Have a good day." Masashi began to head out.

"Thank you. You too." Naruto thanked him while seriously considering visiting more in the next few days. He's sure Boruto would like it for its quality alone, but he has to make sure.

'Reading it first then giving it to Boruto would be fine, right? A parent should know what he's giving to their child'. He nods to himself before starting to read the first page.

"Um, Hokage-sama, the paperwork?" Renji nervously asked but was also intrigued by his reaction. From what he saw on the cover. It looked nice. He will definitely pay a visit after his shift.

Naruto froze and his expression dropped into a pout

"Ah…right…paperwork" Naruto lamented grabbing the stack while pocketing the manga.

'Perhaps I could read it in my office. I hope Shikamaru doesn't catch me though.' He thought while heading out ready to start the day.

The manga, Demon Slayer, is one of the first times that Uzumaki Naruto was excited to read.

Everything was just starting.