Naruto: Elemental Warriors Online.

When Naruto logged back in, he was lying down right in the middle of the Konoha mansion's dilapidated garden. The entire place looked so rundown he could not have imagined it looking any better than this. He didn't know if he should attribute it to luck, but It was currently night time, so there was no danger of being burnt to a crisp by the sun.

The garden was actually right in the middle of the mansion, with a sky light over it. But the painted glass roof, much like everything else in this mansion was in pieces. Getting this mansion back in shape would take a lot of gold coins.

Naruto spent most of his time looking around the mansion, it had three floors, excluding the massive bas.e.m.e.nt below, the first floor had the ball room, a kitchen, six rooms that were the servant quarters, each with their own bathrooms, and a store room. The second floor had eight rooms evenly spread between the east and west wing of the house. There was nothing too special about this floor though, but the third floor had three massive rooms, and what Naruto could only assume was an office. It was all a mess, but at least he had canvassed the entire place.

Naruto was not really good at management, but until Shikamaru returned from the army, he had to try his best with this.

Naruto eventually left the mansion and made his way into the city, with the mansion in hand, he's gotten the problem of a base covered. Now however he had to get that place up an running, and he also had to get himself some eyes and ears. Someone, or people who could keep an ear out for him in the city. And right now there was only one person he could get that sort of manpower from, or at last the only person who he thinks can provide it.

The overseer looked a lot rounder than the last time Naruto saw him. But how can that be possible, at most Naruto had not seen him for about two days or so, was that enough time for someone to put on such a massive amount of weight. He shook his head in laughter as he realized something, he had gotten so invested that he had forgotten that this was a game. As realistic as it might seem, it was still a game, and any number of bizarre things could happen and he would have no choice but to accept it as normal.

"So you succeeded in clearing out the mansion." This overseer stated

"Naturally." Naruto answered with a smooth voice.

"Alone?" This overseer asked with narrowed this eyes.

"I had some help."

"Very well then. You have my congratulations, subjugating that dungeon has made sure that some nights in the city will be safer."

When you're playing a role, it's imperative you pay attention to your surroundings, you had to keep an eye on your audience, especially the person who you were trying to sell your act to. Every tiny change, tilt of voice, posture, behavioral patterns, and the hidden meaning of their words had to be taken into consideration. Because to successfully pull of a role, or tell a lie, it's not always a matter of making yourself believable, but by being able to read your opponents mood and behaviors so that your act can be structured and adaptive to any sudden change.

Jiraiya had taught Naruto a lot of things no doubt, which was why he was able to notice the hidden meaning behind the words of the overseer. At this point in time, you could say Naruto could smell a quest.

"What do you mean some nights? I was under the Impression that the mansion was the source of this monster terrorizing the city." Naruto asked in cursory tone.

"I wish that were true. There are other such locations around the city, and most of them are centered around the slums with only a few of them in the upper level of the city." The overseer replied

"Be that as it may, won't the government do something about it, or at least the adventurers guild here should be able to pay for some subjugation quest." Naruto asked

"On the contrary sir Menma, the government had chosen to concentrate the protection in the inner level of the city where all the important nobles and the king himself lived. And with the slums making up more than half of the city, this seems like a way for them to cull the excess population. Which brings us to the adventurers guild, those vile lot of leeches are as worse as the nobles, corrupt and sinister to the core.

The Adventurers guild has a hierarchy that they have to follow. The guild in the slums answers to the guild in the level above, and the guild in the level above answers to the one in the inner city. All quest are generated from there, unless of course. Its registered in the guilds below. The constant patronizing of this dungeons brings a steady source of income for the guild, so the idea of completely clearing it does not sit well with them, as it would mean there's no more avenue for making money.

The common people are left to fend for themselves, and most of them end up joining and creating gangs to prey on each other in the city. Others leave, searching for greener pastures, most of them die on the way, others become bandits. And some of the commoners left try to register themselves as adventurers, but without training, or a senior adventurer willing to carry them along until a higher level, they all end up becoming food for the monsters in a dungeon. We're helpless out here."

Then they lapsed into silence as Naruto tried to organize his thoughts. The situation here was just so similar to the real world. The slums in downtown Ney Tokyo where the hospital was located was also experiencing the same kind of neglect. It would take someone with a significant amount of money to make a change. Naruto was also very surprised by the overseer, the round ball of flesh had a deeper deposition than Naruto suspected. He cared about his people, at least Naruto could trust his instincts on this, nobody was that good a lie...…except for Jiraiya, but that was besides the point.

"I would like to help you overseer, but I will need something in return also. These other zones of danger, I do believe they can be owned as properties just like the mansion you sold me yeah." Naruto asked

"yes they can. Though none of them are as cheap as that Mansion."

"Money is no problem for me, Let me buy them from you, and let me clear them out. That way the city can be safe, and we can start finding other ways to preserve the commoners here."

"That would be a big help, but I can't sell you anymore properties, sorry."

Naruto was surprised for a bit, he wondered if his heaven defying luck had come to an end. He should have brought Natsu along, but it was the middle of the night, and without a doubt, that Dragon slayer was drooling on a bed somewhere. But Naruto understood getting strong or obtaining properties won't be that easy, because if it was that easy, then no one would really play the game.

"Why?"

"Well for one, you have no court rank. You're just a commoner, and it's a common law here that a commoner can only own one property. To own more you have to have your rank advance to grey knight, where you can own an extra property, then black knight, and white knight. Each knight rank adding an extra property to what you can own.

Then after that you'll need to advance to third class baron, adding two more slots to own properties, second class, gives you two more, and first class give you another two. Then you advance to viscount, also with three classes, and each class adds three slots, before finally advancing to duke, with five slots for each class, and finally arch duke, with seven slots for each class. Above that is the king himself."

That was simple enough for Naruto to understand. He had to climb the social ladder to be able to do or own anything substantial. It was pretty basic anyway.

"So how do I get the knight rank?" Naruto asked

"Since that's the lowest rank of nobility, it's quite easy for some adventures to obtain it. You have to make an application for a knight rank at the garrison in the city. Then they would give you missions to complete, building your reputation points until you get enough to advance to the next level. Then you will pay an application fee for the next rank."

Ultimately Naruto was able to read between the fine print. It was not that you had to gain sufficient reputation points to advance, it was basically you had to gather enough money to do so. The missions were nothing more than a façade, a formality. The real truth of the matter was that, the nobility ranks were bought. Naruto could not help shaking his head, this was an MMO, but it was slowly turning into a single player RPG with how rich and realistic the plot was becoming.

" there's no problem with you wanting to help the commoners, but you need sufficient power to do so. So will you take a request of mine? It's what you travelers do after all." The overseer asked.

"It would be my p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e sir." Naruto replied.

SYSTEM ALERT: QUEST

DIFFICULTY: E

GAINING POWER (1): [king the overseer of the slums of Shinokawa city wants you to raise your nobility to the rank grey knight. (Rewards: 2000 exp, deed to a property, 5 gold coins) time: 4:21:39:44]

Naruto accepted the quest, at the very least it gave him a direction to focus on for the time being while he waited for what he put up in the auction house to bring back profits.

"Well I'll be sure to complete it, Mr. King. However I also have another reason for coming here tonight." Naruto said as he tried picking virtual dirt from his finger nails.

"Oh!, and what might this other reason be?" the overseer, who's name was King for some reason asked.

"I need workers to get that mansion back into shape. At least for now, I want the mansion to be habitable. But it's renovations would also have to be made according to my specifications."

"Well I have people who can take care of that for you. Actually the proper word should be, I have a team, or a gang who chose to make a living by doing jobs like this and helping out where they can. They would be able to build whatever its is you want, all to your specifications if not better. But they're a little expensive, even though they live in the slums just like everyone else."

"Like I said money is not a problem, what's the name of this gang of builders." Naruto asked with a resolute voice, meanwhile mentally praying that they're not as expensive as King says they are. Because contrary to his words, Money's a problem, a big one.

"They don't have a name, they just go by their given names. They're Toph the blind bandit, Hal Jordan the green lantern, a young man whose name is not known, but is called the villain in glasses. And finally an old engineer who goes by the name Tony Stark. Quite a fearsome bunch if you ask me."

Naruto blinked, then he shook his head very certain he was hearing things. But he had to clarify none the less. Can you please repeat their names.

"Okay sure? Toph, Hal Jordan, the villain in glasses, and Old Man Tony Stark. Is there a problem?" King asked.

"No, nothing of the sort, their names are just startlingly familiar, too familiar even. Alright can I trust you to take care of any other arrangements, and could you please give me a rough estimate of how much it's going to cost to completely renovate the mansion." Naruto said, trying his best to calm his raging heart.

"Of course, there's no problem about that. Only thing is that you would have to pay me a commission of 50 gold coins, apart from that my rough estimate of a normal renovation of the mansion, including the amount to be paid to my rowdy group of genius builders is about three thousand gold coins."

Naruto almost spat out blood, he bought that mansion for only seven gold coins, how come it's like this now. But King did not seem to notice his discomfort as he continued rattling out prices.

"But that's just a normal estimation, if you're going to be making any sort of special designs, adjustments, or additions to the mansions main plans, I estimate the least amount of money you will spend, should be nothing short of 20 to 30 thousand gold coins. But if you can't pay up front, a daily stipend of fifty gold coins would be enough to keep with the upkeep and cost required until the mansion is finished. If you want, I can draw up a contract and have my people come up."

"Your people?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Oh! Did I forget to mention, this rowdy bunch of builders work for me Hehehe"

'the sneaky bastard, he was playing me the whole time. What f.u.c.k.i.n.g commission, he's their boss. Playing the pig to eat a tiger, well played Mr. King, well played.'

Naruto nodded his head in agreement to a contract sighing as he tried to figure out a way to stably make 50 gold coins a day without having to make a system announcement every time. Damn, he really should have brought Natsu along.