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“Where are we going, Kou?” Naruto asked innocently, with his big blue eyes.

“We need to buy some stuff first, follow me.” I said and walked further from the academy. Mizuki gave us two hours and Naruto was anxious to get back to his area for the task. Now that we were going to the village, he was even more depressed. But he had full trust in me, so he still followed.

“Yo, kid. Are you up for a task again?” A woman said as we reached an alley. The woman was wearing skimpy clothes that hardly covered her assets, and behind her was a business vendor that did some shady things involving lots of screaming and red lights. But in the daytime, she was working as a healer with her meager amount of knowledge about healing jutsu and alchemy. 

I met with her not long ago while looking for quests in the village. She asked me to gather plants for her to turn into burn creams. Same thing Mizuki was asking. She was paying 300 to a stalk, so yeah, I was going to make 200% profit from this business. That was why Mizuki was so upset. 

“Yes, but I need some advance payment.” I said and her face mopped. “I will bring them back in 2 hours, I promise.”

“Heh, I shouldn’t trust you, but we were partners for a time now. I will cut %10 from the total though.”

“No thanks.” I turned to walk away and urged Naruto, “Let’s go Naruto, we can find some other place to sell at least 100 stalks.”

[Speech increased to 34]

“100?” The woman cried behind me, “Wait. Wait, I was joking.”

“You broke my trust. I thought we were partners.” I said with a fake sadness all over my face.

“Cut the crap, brat. Here is your advance, come back in two hours.” She said, as she pushed the money in my hand.

“Thank you.” I smiled and dashed away with Naruto in tow. Next, we went to a candy shop and I bought some Cotton Candy. And by some, I mean a lot. It cost me around 3000 Ryo. Later to a fruiterer, and bought 10 watermelons. After that, we sneaked into the forest and got to the border marked in our maps.

“Kou, why did we buy all these? We spent 5000 Ryo for all these!” Naruto said with a grimace.

“Mizuki sent us to a dangerous location, Naruto.” I sighed and showed him the map, “See here. From here to here, these places are infested with Kanuki.”

“WHATTT!” Naruto exclaimed as he stepped back. We were always in the forests or near the river. It wasn’t our first time seeing Kanuki. He knew how painful they could be, “Yeah, now we will make a deal with them.”

“Deal with Kanuki?” He asked incredulously. 

“Yup, just follow my lead.” I smirked and moved to the border. Once there, I cut one of the watermelons and threw them just over the border and it didn’t take long for damned rodents to move towards us cautiously. Some brave ones started to steal watermelons I threw earlier. When there were more than 100 of them near the border, I moved closer and said, “I've come to bargain, Dormammu. Wait, this is not that universe.”

“I came to bargain, Kanuki.” I showed the cotton candies. They smelled the air and started to move closer. “Good, it seems like you are smart. I want you to gather these plants for me, and I will give you all these? What do you think?”

Benefit of one of the perks in Speech Skill Tree, [Inter-species Communication], perk points spent nicely. Although it didn’t allow me to understand or “speak” animal language, we could, how can I say it delicately, get each other.  

They started to move their paws and cry, obviously asking for more. Greedy bastards, “I have only this much. Either leave it or take it.”

They tried to bargain a bit more but I was resolute so they all vanished into the forest, while I sat down near a tree.

“Are you sure about this, Kou?” Naruto asked with a tilt of his head. He was majorly confused.

“Yup. The plants Mizuki asked us to gather grow up faster when Kanuki marks them with their pee. Although there are some outside of their territory, the most are within their borders. So other students can gather maybe as much as we can get.”

“Really?” Naruto asked with disbelief.

“Yup. Mizuki asked each team to gather 3 stalks and there were 15 teams. 14 will get around 3 that makes 42, some will bring more and we can get around 50. That is why I promised that lady that much.”

“Oh, you are a genius, Kou!” Naruto fisted the air, “We can be rich if we do this everyday!!”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is not possible. It takes time for these plants to grow up, that is why I never used this method before. I was collecting them for pocket money, but since Mizuki forced my hand, I thought I could teach him a lesson.” I smirked.

“How so?” Naruto asked, confused.

“You don’t listen at all, do you?” I shook my head, “He promised B for the teams that can get three stalks and each extra stalk will increase the grade.”

“Oh, we will get the top score!” Naruto punched his palm.

“Yup. And we will also get rich.” I smirked.

“Yes, you are a genius.” Naruto copied my smirk as we waited. Soon, the damned rodents came back with the plants in a pouch and threw it over the border. I gave a look at the pouch and roughly counted 55. It was better than I expected. I pass them the watermelons and cotton candies. And before we left, I turned to look at the rodents, and shouted, “Don’t wash the cotton candy. It is sad.”

The rest was as expected. Mizuki was not happy with Naruto’s success, and my purchase. As I expected, some got over 5 stalks for the top score, and I got more than 100 stalks, happily selling them to the lady. Easy money really.