A/N: This is a two in one chapter, I had to go read a bit about talisman making then also on coding . Enjoy.
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General Store – Evening
Murakami's POV
Hina finished writing in the ledger and slid it across the counter. "We made 43,200 ryō this past month, mostly from staple goods, ink, and storage scrolls. That's a 6% increase from the previous month." She tapped the page. "Probably because more shinobi are stocking up before heading out."
I skimmed the figures, noting the pattern. The increased traffic wasn't just civilians preparing for winter, it was the war.
More missions meant more supplies, more travel, and more spending.
But I didn't say it out loud. There was no need to voice it out. I knew she was already aware of that
"We should increase stock on preserved beverages and other stationery products, ink especially," I said instead.
"Order another three crates of dried fish and two of rice from the wholesaler. And check if the seal scroll makers down the road have extra storage scrolls we can buy in bulk."
Hina rolled her eyes. "I already put in the order. The shipment arrives in four days."
I smirked. "Good call." She was good, it was truly satisfying to see the fruits of your labour and investments. Now no one could say his secret and low-key grooming process was in vain.
She leaned against the counter crossing her arms. "You're actually going to help unload this time, right? Or are you just going to check the numbers and vanish?"
"I'll help." I said, rolling my eyes, "I'm not that unreliable."
"That's debatable." She sneeded.
I could argue, but she wasn't wrong.
…
Who is Hina and why was she working here?
Well…
Hina and I had known each other for as long as I could remember being aware of myself in this world.
She was among the dreadful group that birthed my strong dislike for kids.
She grew up with us in the orphanage but had already aged out a few months ago.
Unlike some of the others who left for other places once they turned twelve, she stayed around the village.
Maybe because of familiarity or maybe because she didn't want to leave the younger kids behind or the saddest part which could be that she has nowhere to go.
I wouldn't know and couldn't be bothered to find out.
She worked odd jobs around the various markets around the village before I convinced her to help out full-time at the store.
She had a sharp mind, was quick with numbers and acted like it was just work, but I knew she cared.
She was someone who still visited the orphanage every week, dropping off extra food or supplies whenever she could.
…
…
Hina yawned, stretching her arms. "Anyway, now that you're here, you can lock up. I'm done for the day."
"Skipping out early?" I looked outside to check the time. The sun hung low, casting everything in gold. It wasn't exactly late, but I didn't argue.
"I've been here since morning. You, on the other hand, just got here." She snorted and untied her apron and tossed it onto the counter. "So, what's your plan for the break? Gonna finally take it easy?"
I smirked. "We both know that's not happening."
She chuckled. "Didn't think so."
Grabbing her pouch and stuffing it into her kimono, she made her way to the door, but before stepping out, she glanced over her shoulder.
"Oh, and don't forget, the orphanage's monthly supply run is in three days. I already set aside 8000 ryō worth of goods for them."
I nodded. "Got it."
She waved lazily. "See you tomorrow."
And then she was gone.
The store immediately went quiet with her departure.
I looked around and noted that the shelves looked stocked, and Hina made sure the ledger was balanced… I let myself enjoy that moment of stillness before proceeding to lock up for the day.
Three weeks of break, huh? I thought as I stuffed the keys into my haori. It will be a very memorable holiday to a majority of kids in the academy, I sure wasn't going to waste it.
…
…
Three days later.
Fūinjutsu has been on my mind more and more lately.
At first, it was just a curiosity, something I experimented with on the side since it was interesting. But now, it is becoming a problem.
A business problem.
I flipped open the ledger on the counter, running a finger down the columns of expenses.
Chakra-treated parchment.
Conductive ink.
Replacement brushes.
Blank sealing scrolls.
Wax sheets for storage.
The costs were starting to pile up. Not enough to hurt the store yet, but if things kept going this way, it would start eating into our profits.
The costs weren't unreasonable…yet. But if I kept at this pace, the store's profits would start taking a hit.
Seal scroll makers charged a premium for their work, and for good reason. Creating reliable, high-quality storage scrolls wasn't easy.
But that was the issue, wasn't it?
I was paying someone else for something I was perfectly capable of making myself.
My fingers tapped idly against the counter.
"You don't pay others to do what you can do yourself," I muttered. "That's just paying extra for convenience."
Selling my own seals.
Now that made sense.
Well, it did make more sense than continuing to buy from others.
If I could produce them in-house, I wouldn't just cut costs, I could sell them directly and make a profit.
I know I had spoken big to Ishida-san about finding a seal maker but they weren't just walking the street like your everyday normal person.
From what ive gatbered abour people kf tbag profession, they are people who would rather stay indoors scribblinf lines on paper that socialising.
They were like mad scientists or should computer programmers.
Anyway, they are hard to come across, but that's aside the issue.
I already understood the basics of the storage seals.
After my numerous attempts, I finally drew a passable one. The seal consisted of a series of conditional commands written in kanji with ink.
They stored items and retrieved them, when chakra was poured in following a unique hand sign pattern.
The problem?
Time.
It took too long to manually inscribe a fresh storage seal every time one was needed.
That was why seal makers could charge so much, it wasn't just about skill; it was about efficiency.
It was at a time like this that I regretted not reading some of those novels where the protagonists was a talisman maker.
Tch, if only I had known. But there isn't any need to cry over spilt milk.
If there was something I've understood about it, it's similar to coding. I wasn't good at coding but I did have some knowledge on it and I knew one thing for sure.
Codes need structure. A system. Otherwise, everything falls apart the moment you run it.
So, I needed a System, a way to standardize the process.
The Modular Seal Design I had thought up some time earlier was one way to go about it with preset functions that only required slight adjustments rather than a full rewrite each time.
I could produce them faster and cheaper than custom seals.
And better yet…
If I streamlined it enough, I could start offering them for sale.
No more buying from suppliers. They'd be buying from me.
A slow grin spread across my face.
Yeah.
That was the plan.
It would definitely take time for testing and refining, but if I do get it right, it wouldn't just save me money, it would turn into an entire revenue stream.
The store wouldn't just be selling general goods anymore.
It would be selling my seals.
And once that happened…
Well.
Who said an eight-year-old couldn't build a business empire.
…
…
The next morning, I headed straight to the store as soon as I left the gates of the orphanage, seal papers in hand.
Upon arriving, it wasn't surprising that Hina was already behind the counter, flipping through the store ledger. She always got in early, despite constantly complaining about it.
"You're out early," She noted as I walked in. "You look like you didn't sleep. Let me guess, playing with ink again?"
"Something like that," I admitted. I placed my test seal papers on the counter. "Tell me what you see."
She gave me a look but picked one up, inspecting the pattern.
"This is… different."
Hina wasn't a fūinjutsu expert, but she had a sharp eye. That's why I trusted her opinion.
"...It's compact," she muttered, "I notice how the seal pattern itself takes up less surface area on the paper. Looks like a storage seal, but it's missing some of the usual kanji." She frowned. "You rewrote the entire formula?"
I nodded.
"And it works?" She asked with a look of wonder.
"Sometimes."
She rolled her eyes at that and snorted. "Not exactly a glowing review."
"That's why I need a second opinion. What did you notice?" I ignored her attempt at making me react.
She studied it again. "As I said, It's compact, but the ink density looks off. Feels… unstable?"
I exhaled in relief that she was able to come to the same conclusion that I did. For a moment, I thought I was just overthinking it.
"Yeah. It works, but the balance is wrong. I'm trying to reduce production time and cost, but if I sacrifice too much, the seal won't hold."
Hina placed the scroll down. "So fix it."
Ugh. I gave her a flat look. "That's the plan."
She smirked. "Then stop talking to me and get back to work. It's not like I can understand whatever you'll say next.?"
I rolled my eyes but took the scrolls back. She wasn't exactly wrong about that. Although she's got good eyes and senses, that's all there is to it.
…
…
By the second day, I focused on refining the structure.
On day three, I tested material efficiency.
I thought that If I used a different ink mixture, I could reduce the amount needed while maintaining stability so I gave it a try.
By day five, I had something functional.
A storage seal with only two kanji instead of five. Same function with less cost in space.
At least, that was the idea.
Normally, a basic storage seal needed five key inscriptions.
One to bind, another to contain, one to stabilize, one for recall, and one to anchor it to whatever surface you placed it on.
Five separate commands just to keep a rice bag from exploding when you unsealed it, and if the seal is broken, so is your bag.
Efficient? Hardly.
I leaned over the parchment, brush still dripping with ink.
The first kanji ("封") I'd rewritten to handle both the binding and containment function.
With the right chakra flow, it could do both jobs at once, sealing the item and creating the inner pocket-space automatically.
The second ("界") served as a flexible boundary and recall marker.
By tweaking how my chakra pulsed through it, I could define both the space's size and the trigger that released it.
Five steps compressed into two strokes.
If fūinjutsu was like writing code, then this was my attempt at creating a new programming language, one that skipped all the unnecessary lines.
The downside?
Precision.
If I push too much chakra, the seal gets distorted. Too little, and it wouldn't activate at all.
The difference between success and failure was as thin as the brush tip I was holding.
It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to test in real conditions.
That meant taking it to the market district.
But first, Hina needs to see this and that brings me to my current situation.
"Watch this." I smirked, reaching for a kunai from under the counter.
Placing the kunai on the parchment, I pressed two fingers against the inked formula and pushed a bit of chakra into it.
With a faint shimmer around it, the weapon disappeared.
Hina blinked.
"Okay… that's cool." She tapped the seal with her knuckle. "And retrieving it?"
I repeated the process, and with another flicker of chakra, the kunai reappeared exactly as it had been.
Note! Without a burst of smoke.
Fucking animation.
Messed with my perception of reality a bit too much.
Hina let out a low whistle and picked up the Seal paper and inspected it. "I don't know much about fūinjutsu, but I do know this, most storage seals take up almost double the space you used here."
She set the paper down and crossed her arms. "So? What's the plan?"
I exhaled, thinking through the steps I had outlined in my head the night before.
"I spend way too much money on storage scrolls. Even for basic use, I have to buy them from seal scroll makers, and the markup is ridiculous."
Hina snorted. "You're complaining about prices? That's rich."
I ignored her. "So I started thinking, why not make my own? But then I realized something else. If I can create cheaper, more efficient seals, why not sell them?"
Hina gave me a long look before shaking her head with a laugh. "You never stop, do you?"
"Not if I can help it."
She picked up another seal, examining the lines again. "Alright, say I believe in your genius. What next?"
I drummed my fingers against the counter. "A few things. First, I need a reliable method to mass-produce them. Handwriting each seal is too time consuming."
"Yeah, you'll break your wrist if you try making these one by one."
"Exactly. There are techniques to replicate seals onto multiple parchments at once, but I need to experiment with them."
Hina nodded. "And after that?"
"Then I test the market." I gestured around us. "We already have a general store. We can start selling a few and see how they do. If it works, we expand."
Hina hummed, thinking it over. Then she leaned forward, her elbows resting on the counter. "Okay, I'm interested. But how much do you think you can sell them for?"
I pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment and jotted down figures.
"A standard storage scroll costs around 5,000 ryō, sometimes even more depending on the supplier," I said, tapping the figures in the ledger. "My version uses less ink, takes up less space, and I can produce them in batches."
I adjusted the quill behind my ear. "That means I can sell mine for 3,800 ryō—still profitable, but low enough to make every other supplier sweat."
Hina let out a low whistle. "That's a 24% drop in price. You'll have half the market banging on your door before the week's over."
"Good," I said with a small grin. "Let them come. That is a scenario that I would welcome since they will be providing free advertising for the product."
I leaned back, crossing my arms. "And if we get a steady demand, I can start developing variations, bigger seals for heavier items, specialized ones for perishable goods. Maybe even custom orders."
Hina shook her head, but I could see the spark of interest in her eyes. "You really thought this through."
I gave her a smug look. "Of course."
She sighed. "Alright, I'll handle pre-chaos advertising." She said with a smirk. "We can set up a small display in the store and spread the word through the market district."
I grinned. "Knew I could count on you." Hina was the perfect proxy in anything related to the store.
Her role is to make sure I can remain behind the scenes comfortably.
"Yeah, yeah." She waved me off. "But don't think you're getting out of unloading just because you have a new pet project."
I groaned.
…
…
The rest of the week was all about refinement.
At this point, I practically moved into the back room of the store.
My workspace now looked more like a workshop than a store now, seal papers scattered across the table, ink bottles lined up in rows, and a faint smell of burnt chakra lingering in the air.
You'd think chakra doesn't have a smell but apparently when chakra burns through a seal, it does have odour.
And it isn't pleasant.
And at the center of it all lay my latest creation: The Modular Seal.
It wasn't much to look at really, just a flat metal plate engraved with layers of sealing formulas and a faint spiral pattern at its core meant to allow chakra flow into the plate.
But this wasn't a seal. It was supposed to make seals.
Traditional sealing was slow and exhausting as hina had observed and I already knew, every formula had to be written by hand, one at a time.
I had other things to be doing with my time such as training my body and chakra control.
And the Modular Seal was designed to bypass that.
A single chakra pulse into the master plate should, in theory, imprint multiple identical seals onto blank parchment at once.
That was the intention behind its creation anyway.
I reviewed my notes, tapping the brush against my knuckles.
→ Main seal acts as the master template.
→ Chakra flows from the center outward, carrying the formula.
→ Ink density and chakra balance must stay even, or the pattern distorts.
"Alright," I muttered. "Let's see if you behave this time."
I pressed my hand to the plate, channeling chakra through it.
The seal paper beneath shimmered faintly as lines of ink appeared in rapid sequence. It was neat and compact.
For a second, it looked perfect.
Then the edges of the pattern bled, twisting into nonsense before the parchment burst into a faint puff of smoke.
"…Wonderful."
By sundown, I'd gone through twenty parchments and nearly drained my chakra reserves.
Only four of the seals worked properly. The rest were either warped, unstable, or completely dead.
The problem wasn't my control, it was the Modular seal plate.
The Modular Seal wasn't distributing chakra evenly. Some sections overloaded while others went dry, warping the formula in unpredictable ways.
It was like bad wiring in an engine where there is too much current in one circuit and not enough in another.
Or worse, like a line of code where one wrong indentation causes the whole program to crash.
The spiral at the center should have distributed chakra like a processor running parallel commands, each segment handling its own small task in perfect sync.
This means that I needed to rework the chakra channels, make them flow like more capillaries and not veins.
At that moment, as though waiting for me to come to that conclusion, Hina poked her head in sometime after sunset.
"You alive?"
"Barely." I wiped a streak of ink off my cheek and gestured to the stack of ruined parchments. "The Modular Seal's still misfiring."
She stepped inside, eyeing the mess. "That's a nice way of saying it exploded again."
"Only twice."
She raised an eyebrow. "Progress, then?"
I smirked. "In a very destructive sense, yes."
She laughed softly. "Well, don't die in here. I'll bring food."
When she left, the room was quiet again except for the soft hue of chakra still faintly radiating from the metal plate.
I stared at it, fingers drumming against the table.
It was badly flawed but it worked.
It wasn't consistent, but it worked.
And that was enough for now.
Time went by and by the end of the second week, I'd managed to refine the success rate to just over sixty percent.
I could now make 12 out of 20.
The Modular Seal still needed tuning, but I finally had a decent pile of finished seals ready to sell, forty in total, each compact, clean, and more affordable than anything our suppliers offered.
The next morning, Hina set up a display at the front of the store with a small sign that read
"New! Compact Storage Seals — Fast, Reliable, Affordable!"
As far as she was concerned, it was just another new product line that needed to be created awareness on.
But for me… it was proof that mass production was finally possible.
And that meant the Modular Seal, imperfect as it was, had already changed everything.