Chapter 3 "So, Mingxi, have you decided how to punish Xiao..."
The legal system in this world is simpler and cruder than you think. This has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you can use your past life's experience to exploit loopholes in the law. The disadvantage is that if you take legal action without the ability to protect your own life, you'll probably be killed before you can even recite a few legal provisions.
Therefore, in this world, it is not enough to just develop your career; you also need to build your own armed forces, or simply put, your own army.
Achieving this goal won't be easy. Money is one issue, and another is finding ways to recruit talent. In this world, where there are ninjas, there are also rogue ninjas. The former are relatively law-abiding, but as for the latter, based on your experience, you'd be lucky if you didn't get betrayed when you cooperated with them.
Ah... I guess I have to take it slow. These things can't be accomplished overnight. Putting these worries aside, your first shop has been doing very well lately. There are long lines outside the shop almost every day, and the daily profits are quite considerable. After thinking about it for a few days, you opened an izakaya next to that ramen shop. The profit margin for alcoholic beverages is also very high.
Because of your experience running the first store, you handled every step of the second store incredibly smoothly. From site selection to decoration and hiring employees, everything was done in one go. After going through these processes, you still had some funds left. It's thanks to the fact that you don't usually spend much money, and it seems like you don't have any expenses. Your food, clothing, housing, and transportation are all taken care of by the Uchiha clan. Mikoto prepares new clothes for you every quarter, and it's clear that she really wants a daughter.
She often braids your hair, and you are very patient with her. While she braids your hair, you sit and read books, mostly law books. Mikoto glanced at it and said, "Mingxi, you really like reading these kinds of books."
It's not that I particularly like it, it's just that I'm used to it. You've been dealing with these kinds of thick books since college. My friends in the same major say that if you get into a conflict with someone outside, you can use the power of the law to punish the other party. That's right, you can use a law book, which is more powerful than a brick, to punish the other party.
Mikoto was braiding your hair when Sasuke, who had already learned to walk, walked up to you and then lost his balance and fell into your arms. You straightened him up and held him, letting him read a law book with you. He couldn't read yet, but his soft fingers poked around on the pages, and he whispered, "Why are there so many tadpoles here?"
"Haha..." Mikoto laughed out loud, "What should we do, Sasuke? You don't seem to have any talent for studying."
Sasuke was unconvinced and challenged you to read it to him. You started with civil law. When you got to the section on loans, Sasuke yawned, rubbed his eyes, and said, "I'm so sleepy."
Mikoto braids your hair and then tries to carry Sasuke away, but he's completely unwilling and clings tightly to you.
“Sasuke, it’s not good for you to be so clingy,” Mikoto said. Sasuke whispered, “But I like Aki! Aki likes me too.”
You don't deny the first sentence, but the second sentence... don't answer for you. Mikoto went to the kitchen to prepare baby food for Sasuke. You sat on the corridor in the courtyard. When you saw the back, you felt your eyes getting sore. You didn't want to become nearsighted again, so you closed the book and let your eyes rest for a while. Sasuke was sleeping soundly. You lowered your eyes and touched his cheek.
This time, Itachi didn't suddenly make a sound and scare you. He deliberately made footsteps as he walked over so you would be prepared. He said, "Sasuke is bothering you again? Come on, I'll hold him."
Let him take Sasuke away. Relax your eyes by looking at the green plants in the courtyard. Itachi says he signed up for this year's Chunin Exams. Although you live with a large family of ninjas, you don't know much about ninjas. It wasn't until later that you realized how dangerous the Chunin Exams were, which he spoke of so casually. In fact, people die in them every year. You can't blame him. Itachi always talks about things so lightly. Maybe in his eyes, it really is just a small matter.
You gave a perfunctory reply, and Itachi said, "You're very interested in law?" He noticed the book you had placed next to you.
"It's never a bad thing to learn more."
"For example, physical skills? I think you should learn more physical skills, at least to give you the ability to protect yourself." He said this earnestly, and had advised you several times, to the point that you were tired of hearing it.
Seeing you frown unhappily, Itachi smiled instead, because at least now your emotions were caused by him. Even if it was annoyance, it was better than your previous perfunctory attitude and neglect. Itachi did not consider himself the kind of person who would deliberately do various things to attract the attention of others. That would be too childish. However, he really could not tolerate your ignoring him.
Even though he knows you didn't do it intentionally, and that you treat everyone the same, he just... feels that you have a lot in common.
Before you actually came to this family, he overheard a conversation between your father and his wife one evening when he passed by your father's study. It started with a letter your father had sent, through which they mentioned you.
"His daughter is about the same age as Itachi, and he asked me to take their daughter back to Konoha if anything happens to them."
Perhaps soon they will have a new guest, Itachi thought. His eavesdropping was discovered by his father, Fugaku, who beckoned him over and invited him to listen in the study.
"I hope you can take good care of her then. After all, she has no one to rely on in Konoha. We are her only support."
Itachi nodded. He took his father's words as a mission. Since it was a mission, he was capable of completing it perfectly. However—upon the first moment he met you, he realized that this mission might have gone wrong from the very beginning.
Holding your mother, with your black hair and eyes that are remarkably similar to those of the Uchiha clan, and with your calm expression, you don't seem like a child who needs protection.
At times, he would glimpse a corner of your unfathomable soul. Your words were even more philosophical than his father's, and only you could answer many questions. So, gradually, he developed a habit of seeking your advice whenever he encountered troubles, wanting to hear what you had to say.
In this way, he becomes dependent on you.
And you, it seems you don't need him as much as he imagined. You always sit quietly in the living room or your room reading. What are you thinking about when you're silent? He's very curious.
So when he realized you seemed to have financial needs, he finally found a place where you might need his help, and said to you with great joy, "It's okay, I'll help you."
It may seem like he's helping you, but it's actually more like you're helping him.
He's smiling at you right now, and you relent, "Okay... it's fine to exercise occasionally."
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking and you were still half asleep, Itachi knocked on your door to remind you to get up. You suppressed your morning grumpiness, went to the door, and opened it. Well, actually, you didn't really control your morning grumpiness very well. You said, "What are you doing at this hour?"
"Exercise, you mentioned it yesterday."
Although you really wanted to deny it, you clearly remembered what you said yesterday, so you had no choice but to grit your teeth and go to exercise. You changed into a set of sportswear, which Mikoto had prepared for you, but you hadn't worn it much, so today was the first time it would come in handy.
The training Itachi was referring to was running laps around Konoha. Although Konoha is nominally a village, it actually covers an area roughly the size of a city. If you give up after running a third of the way, Itachi, who has been jogging alongside you, will say, "Just a little longer."
No, this is clearly not something you can accomplish by just pushing yourself a little longer. You're out of breath, this is your limit. You bend over and support yourself with your hands on your knees. Itachi also bends down and asks softly, "Can you walk back?"
If you hadn't thought the ground was too dirty, you almost would have just lay down on it.
"Looks like it's not going to work..."
You could vaguely detect a hint of joy in his words.
Is this guy gloating? What a nasty personality. You suddenly looked up, and Itachi wiped the sweat from your forehead with a handkerchief, then squatted down with his back to you. "Come on—I'll carry you back."
Although you really wanted to tell him firmly that he didn't need to, the reality didn't allow it. Being flexible and adaptable was your life motto, so you leaned against his back like a stranded fish.
After walking for a while, your breathing became easier, and you caught Itachi's sigh. He said, "This is wonderful."
What is he sighing about?
"What's so good about it?" you scoffed.
“I’m so happy that Mingxi is leaning on me right now. Usually, Mingxi is too independent and always refuses to let others get close to her.”
If you can't figure out what he's thinking, give up trying.
*
In the days that followed, whenever you neglected Itachi and ignored him for a long time, he would always suggest that you get up early to exercise. When you figured out his true purpose and took him to court, he calmly admitted all your speculations and accusations, with such a frank smile on his face, and said, "Well, it's all because Aki always ignores me."
What a self-righteous defendant! You pursed your lips. Mikoto, the temporary judge, smiled and smoothed things over. She first said to Itachi, "Itachi's actions will cause Aki a lot of trouble, so if you want Aki to pay more attention to you next time, you'd better just say so."
Then she said to you, "So, has Aki figured out how to punish Itachi?"
You had already planned it all out: to sprinkle chili powder on the three-colored dumplings right in front of him. You finally saw Itachi, who was usually calm and collected, show an expression of utter disbelief. "Hahaha—I really should have taken a picture of what you just did!"
Unexpectedly, Mikoto actually pulled out a camera. Wait, where did she get that from? You were also taken aback for a moment. Mikoto took several photos of you two together, resting her chin on her hand. "Aki and Itachi are so cute! Want to see the finished photos?"
This trial was a complete failure!
Later, Mikoto developed these photos, and Itachi kept them in an album. Incidentally, there was more than one such album.
Aside from the occasional minor incident, your life is fairly uneventful. Every evening, you open your system to check on the operation of your two shops. After reaching a certain level, you will unlock new modules, such as the [Social Charity] module. The general idea is to increase your social reputation by hiring people with disabilities or taking in homeless people and animals, and you can also be exempted from certain taxes.
Since it's tax-free, you should definitely put up a job ad and also take care of the cats and dogs near those two stores.
When you clicked the button, a small ripple was stirred up in Kirigakure, the village far away in the Land of Water, because of the job postings displayed by these two shops.
"Hiring people with disabilities? I really don't know what the owners of these two stores were thinking. Isn't this a waste of money?"
"And wouldn't it be difficult for disabled people to do this kind of work?"
That day, Zabuza, who was about to go on a mission, passed by that ramen shop again and saw groups of people discussing the job postings posted at the shop entrance. He just glanced at it. That's how the world is. If you show even the slightest bit of goodwill, it will be devoured by other hyenas that have caught your scent.
He was about to look away when he saw the child helping to fetch water in the ramen shop. The child was only four or five years old. Zabuza remembered that the last time he saw that child was next to a garbage dump. The child looked lifeless, as if he was about to die. But now, he was walking around the ramen shop and occasionally even smiled.
It wasn't until later, when those two stores actually hired a lot of disabled employees and took in a lot of orphans, that he became somewhat curious about the owners of those two stores.
Meanwhile, you, living in Konoha, also experienced a major event. To put it a bit exaggerated, it was that Itachi passed the Chunin Exams. This was a completely predictable event, like sending a promising student to take the high school entrance exam – a complete game-changer. So, while everyone else congratulated him, you remained quite calm.
Mikoto threw him a celebration party, and you quietly ate tamagoyaki at the party. Perhaps you were too calm, so Itachi took advantage of the others not paying attention and whispered to you, "Aki, aren't you happy for me?"
Given that he had previously warned certain boys who expressed interest in you to keep their distance, you felt that along with his age and power, his hidden desire for control had also grown.
An ordinary child would surely be charmed by this gesture, which is full of warmth, but you only feel a little annoyed, so you grab his sleeve and say irritably, "Stop acting like an older brother all the time. Do you really think you're that much more mature than me?"
His eyes widened slightly, and then a smile spread across them.
"Mingxi, are you angry?"
"She's angry because of me."
A note from the author:
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Itachi, this guy has been cunning since childhood [starry-eyed]
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