Chap.37 Living dolls

To Tsunade's complete shock, she had to release Tony after only a week. After eating the first day and recovering a bit, he started creating his own food and his recovery rate skyrocketed.

Even if he wanted her to spend another week for observation, Tony refused because he had too much to do.

To begin with, his business could not be resumed due to lack of merchandise and he urgently needed it to open to start earning money. In the Akimichi clan he always had the necessities covered, but now he had his own house and someone to take care of, he needed to pay the bills.

The next step was to report to the Hokage's office to have a serious talk with Tsunade about an incident that occurred during his stay in the hospital. It turns out that the two village councilors, knowing of his absence, decided that their ninja food scrolls could not be sold and sent people to the Akimichi clan to try to force their creation method to be given to the village.

Not the one with the scrolls, that was something that was in charge of Tenten's family. What they wanted to find out was to know the proportions and cooking methods to be able to produce the dishes with special effects.

Tony didn't need to worry about any leaks because the employees literally knew nothing about it. His only job was to replenish stock from warehouse to store, collect cash, and keep watch. He was the one in charge of making the ninja groceries and they only had this effect thanks to the System recipes and the ingredients obtained by his devil fruit.

What had infuriated him was that the two councilors were aware of the document that he agreed with Sarutobi where the village could not touch his business, but according to them, since the current Hokage had not confirmed the agreement again, it was not valid.

When Tsunade saw the document that Tony handed her, she felt very upset. Putting aside the two advisors' abuse of authority and the fact that they hadn't told her before acting, she saw that the document specified that the Third Hokage was entitled to bentos for life. She tried to ask for the same thing, but Tony knocked her off her game with a single sentence.

—You're my little sister's teacher and you can come to eat at my house whenever you want so that I can cook personally, didn't we talk about it before? —That was the answer she got along with a puzzled expression from Tony.

In the end Tsunade wasn't able to swallow her pride and continue ordering the bentos. She confirmed the document again and added a specific clause that would make it permanent regardless of whether there is a new Hokage, whether the document will be passed down to Tony's descendants, etc...

But when she was left alone in her office, she made a mental note to ask Shizune that from today she should buy her bentos at the Kuku store. She also needed to have a long boundary talk with the two counselors.

Solving the most urgent thing on her agenda, Tony prepared some supplies and tried to use Turkey's System-modified technique on living dolls for the first time. Following the recipe and using both the smoke and oven provided by the System, Tony decided that the first living doll he was going to make would be Brock.

Were there other much more suitable options?

Sure, but he had gotten a lot of Pokemon related stuff and Brock was a good cook. And from the first generation! He needed to understand exactly how it worked in detail, so he would become his test guinea pig.

Two hours later, he opened the oven and on the tray lay a completely naked Brock in a fetal position. After dressing him, he waited a few minutes for his head to start working and began his tests.

The results were better than he expected.

His personality was so vivid, that if he hadn't been the one who took it out of the oven, he would think he was a real person. He even perked up when he talked about women, almost like a Sanji.

When he ordered her to stab him, he looked at him blankly. After several tries, he noted that he would follow any order he gave as a matter of course, but if it involved causing her harm, his mind couldn't seem to process that idea. He also asked her to reveal information that he previously told her he shouldn't and she adamantly refused.

I checked his head using a simple probing technique that I managed to learn as a sensor ninja, I can't read memories or anything like the Yamanaka clan, it's just a basic technique to check if there's a seal or something in his mind. And indeed, there was a very complex seal that, from what the System explained to me, is really only for show. The brain of the living doll is actually blank, empty perhaps would be a more appropriate expression. What had the doll going alive was the smoke that was used during the baking.

The living doll can learn very quickly, and after teaching her the Pokémon food recipes, I asked her to imitate it.

He managed to do it on the first try and the taste, appearance and effects are the same.

What does that mean? That as long as I have enough dolls alive, I no longer need to cook personally and can delegate this task. I will be able to open multiple store branches with different themes.

For example, I can open a Pokémon Center-themed Kuku store and give the store to Brock to sell the Pokémon food. I can open a version of the Yukihira restaurant, open a Gourmet hotel, a Baratie, etc.

I just needed to recreate the characters and have the recipes!

So many possibilities!

It could spread outside the village!

To establish the most exotic and successful food chain in this world!

You could even turn it into your own secret spy ring!

What determined success in this world?

Power, money and information.

After snapping out of his cooking fantasies, Tony decided to test Brock's strength. It seemed that he could only do some basic Taijutsu, but not use chakra. The current level was roughly at the strength he had during graduation from the academy. It could be said that he took some self-defense classes for his safety without raising too much suspicion.

Lastly, he checked what would happen if someone decided to remove one of his living dolls. He burst out in a cloud of black smoke and turned into a roast turkey, which actually contained some kind of toxin that acted as a laxative.

Fortunately, he discovered the last part as a reminder of the System.

He spent the next few days with Karin in his new house and began deciding which characters to bake after reviewing all the recipes he had. He acquired a few more locations and after two weeks remodeling the locations as specific, he would open new food stores.

Not only that, he considered making Alcremie the mascot of his brand. He was adorable and could lure younger children into the business, along with his walking purses…ahem! parents, he meant that they could come with their parents. He sure would appreciate a sweet and soothing cup for the most restless little ones.

He didn't forget to make a clone out of chocolate and send it to watch the roof of the Konoha hospital from afar. He knew that after the team seven fight, he would probably be called to go after Sasuke as one of only two chunin in his class.