Inside his private room in the Art Store, Rob was experiencing drawing manga with his supernatural ability for the first time.
A moment earlier he had summoned dozens of blank sheets with his paper-manipulation ability, then he numbered them all in the order of the manga's first chapter, which was a bit long. Relying on his photographic memory, he recalled the first chapter and some scenes from the anime's first episode to make the chapter more complete and lively… and so he began to draw.
"I'll make this work more complete," Rob smiled, "Since it's primarily aimed at the people directly involved, it will have a special kind of enjoyment."
While preparing to draw, Rob felt great excitement. "I'm really looking forward to seeing these people's reactions when they read this manga…"
Although the precise images were stored in his memory, he truly needed the amazing drawing skill he had gained from the divine network in order to faithfully render everything from his mind onto the page.
After all, memory is not a physical, tangible thing, and to turn it into that you need an exceptional ability—like his drawing talent…
With exaggerated speed, Rob began drawing the first chapter of the Naruto manga.
…
Twelve years ago, the Village Hidden in the Leaves was attacked by a fearsome threat.
A nine-tailed fox spirit claimed the life of the village leader, the Hokage, and many others. Today, the village is at peace and a troublemaking kid named Naruto is struggling to graduate from Ninja Academy.
His goal may be to become the next Hokage, but his true destiny will be much more complicated. The adventure begins now!
Rob placed this quick summary on the cover of his first volume, with an image of Naruto carrying two crossed brushes on his back and holding a ninjutsu scroll between his teeth while performing ninja hand signs and standing on two heads of frogs… this was to pique readers' curiosity about everything in the manga.
The brush in Rob's hand became a swift line as it moved smoothly across the pages one after another.
Pages were drawn and colored at an astonishing rate, so that Rob finished one page every minute.
This incredible speed was especially remarkable considering it was his first time drawing manga and he had not yet become more proficient.
Rob smiled when he finished all the pages of the first chapter titled Naruto Uzumaki, which totaled 58 pages.
"Let's draw chapter two…"
…
While Rob immersed himself in drawing chapters and slowly explored his abilities, outside the commotion caused by the appearance of the Art Store grew much louder.
"Have you discovered what that thing is?" asked Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, the ninja bowing before him.
"Hokage-sama, it has been determined that the mysterious building is not an earth-type ninjutsu, and it doesn't appear to be the product of ninjutsu at all…" the chunin replied tersely.
"Hmm." The Third Hokage fell into deep thought as he stared at the building. Wearing his ninja uniform and carrying his weapons, it was obvious he was ready for any emergency—this sudden occurrence had never happened before… It was completely strange for a building to appear in the middle of the village out of nowhere without warning.
This was indeed an incident classified as S-rank, especially since no further anomalies had shown up.
The most terrifying thing was the unknown.
"Have you detected any suspicious movements in this area?" the Third Hokage asked.
"No, my lord. There are no suspicious movements and no external ninjas have appeared. We've not recorded any other incidents aside from the appearance of the mysterious building." The chunin spoke seriously, without any excessive display of emotion.
"Very well, you may leave. Tell the others to stay one hundred meters away from the mysterious building and lock the Academy doors tightly. I will personally demolish it." the Hokage decided.
"Understood!" The chunin vanished in an instant to carry out the Lord Hokage's orders.
Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep breath, then a white cloud burst and a huge black staff with yellow ends appeared in his hand.
The current Sarutobi was 43 years old and at the peak of his strength and glory.
Since the Second Ninja War was just two years before, his senses were especially sharp to danger. Although the leaders of the five villages had reached a temporary peace and the war seemed over, that peace was obviously fragile and the Third Ninja War could not be far away… Hiruzen did not want to be the one who failed.
His master, the Second Hokage, had left Konoha in his hands before he died; any small mistake could snatch victory from Konoha's hands and cost them the rights guaranteed by their ancestors… This was the Will of Fire engraved deeply in his heart and mind.
As Hokage, he was naturally the strongest in the village…
Hiruzen assumed a combat stance.
The staff in his hand swelled to the size of a large pillar; he threw it with all his might at the mysterious building, certain that this strike—carrying the full power of the Hokage in his prime—would crush the building no matter how solid.
The pillar shot like a ballistic missile and slammed hard into the Art Store.
Sarutobi expected to see the so-called Art Store collapse, but to his astonishment it was as if his pillar had hit an impenetrable barrier and fell to the ground, not even dirtying the wall, let alone causing any damage… Seeing this, the Hokage felt embarrassed and began to question what had gone wrong with his attack.
…
On a tall building in Konoha, a man wearing a black cloak peered intently at the Art Store.
What caught his attention most was the glowing line beneath the building's name: "Come relax and explore the future of the world while you're at it…" Danzo repeated the words quietly.
"Interesting…"
His eyes narrowed as he looked at the images on the screens, which showed unknown people… No one knew Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura, and Kakashi was still just a 5 years-old boy, far from the adult appearance shown on the screen.
But what really drew Danzo's attention were the four people wearing Hokage-like clothing, their backs shown only in silhouette.
"The First Hokage, Hashirama; beside him my master Tobirama; and the third should be Hiruzen… Who is that blond-haired fourth one?" veins appeared on Danzo's forehead at the thought of a talented youth currently 13 or 14 years old who was one of the legendary sannin Jiraya's disciple at the time.
"You say I won't be the next Hokage after Hiruzen?"
Danzo's real aim had always been to become Hokage and enjoy the glory of being the village's top leader.
After Hiruzen was appointed as heir by his master, Danzo thought his own turn had not yet come, but he had been doing everything he could, secretly and openly, to obtain the position after Hiruzen… And now what?
Some wretch opened a shop in his village without a permit and predicted that the fourth seat belonged to someone else, not him?
"Damn you, I don't care who you are, I'll destroy your damned building immediately!"
"Danzo, what's the matter? I heard from Hiruzen that a building appeared out of nowhere in the middle of our village…" A man and a woman approached Danzo, who was staring through the window.
The pair were Danzo's companions and political advisers to the Hokage, Koharu and Homura.
Danzo glanced sideways at the two and said calmly, "Someone is meddling in the wrong place. Don't worry—I'll take care of it."
At that moment, a masked Anbu ninja appeared before Danzo and whispered in a low voice.
"What did you say? Even Hiruzen couldn't destroy it!?" Danzo's eyes widened in shock.
"Impossible!"
…
Rob back to the Art Store vast tavern, smiling as he felt the ninja's desperate attempts to destroy his store and couldn't help but laugh inwardly.
"It seems my dear customers are very eager to come in. Well, sorry to have kept you waiting…"
"But the waiting time is over."
Rob held the finished volume in his hands. He had finally completed the first volume of the Naruto manga, which consisted of 7 chapters… each chapter longer than the previous one.
"I think after this volume, Naruto will gain enormous popularity in Konoha… and he will be a good symbol for the temporary peace between the villages; perhaps a fortunate sign of the wars' end."
Rob smiled as he placed the volume on the table. "Alright, time to make many copies of you."
Using his ability, Rob summoned dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of copies of the first volume before he feels exhausted due to the depletion of his chakra and physical strength.
Then he arranged them carefully on the shelves.
Now only the opening of the store's closed doors and putting them on sale remained.
"So, is everyone ready?"
Rob smiled while standing behind the vendor's counter behind the store door.
"Let's welcome our first customers."
Rob cracked his knuckles and the heavy gates began to creak and slowly open.