He said, "Why do you want your house to not be close to other houses?"
Fujin tilted his head and said, "I did say I want them to be spacious, right?"
Eiji was surprised again. He thought, 'What do you plan on doing with so much space?'
He said, "These are my houses with large empty spaces around them. I do have a few with even larger space. But they don't have any basements. As for the ones with basements, they don't have a large space around them."
Fujin thought and said, "Can you show them to me?"
Eiji nodded and said, "Sure, follow me."
They began walking to the next house.
While walking, Fujin asked, "How much were those houses for Mr Eiji?"
Eiji replied, "I can sell one of those houses to you for 2.2 million Ryo."
He thought, 'They can go for over 3 million Ryo. But due to Takao's words, I can sell them for just above my bottom line.'
Fujin was surprised. He thought, 'So an elemental crystal is worth more than one house? Renjiro wasn't kidding about their rarity!'
Eiji took Fujin to look at a lot of houses. The one Fujin liked the most was a two-storey house built in a 1,500-square-foot area. The land around the house was unoccupied. But it didn't have a basement. And the roads around the houses were quite busy. Since the house was in a good area, it was very pricey too.
After seeing all of the houses, Fujin asked, "Do you construct new houses as well?"
Eiji was tired from taking Fujin on a tour. He answered, "Yes, I do."
Fujin asked, "So, can you make a new house for me with a new design?"
Eiji's eyes twitched, 'After hours of touring, he wants me to build a new house?'
He said, "Building a new house takes time. And you will have to buy the land first."
Fujin looked at him with a confused look and asked, "Don't you have contacts with any sellers of land? How did you build all these houses?"
Eiji didn't reply. He didn't want to argue against Fujin. It just felt like hitting his head on a wall.
He sighed and said, "Yes. But buying land suddenly is very expensive. Especially if you want it in a good area. Only the land at the outskirts of the village would be cheaply available."
Fujin thought a bit and said, "Being on the outskirts of the village doesn't matter. It'll be best if it's closer to the training grounds."
Eiji said, "Okay. I'll contact a friend of mine. Meet me back at the shop after a couple of hours."
Fujin nodded. He said, "Thank You for taking the time to show me the houses."
Eiji's dissatisfaction with Fujin decreased. He watched Fujin as he left and sighed, 'He is an orphan. No wonder he was speaking so formally and without much emotion. I guess that he is still an innocent kid. But, why are his demands for a house so strict?'
He sighed and went to contact his old friend who usually sold him the land.
Fujin had lunch and went to Eiji's shop in the afternoon. On entering the shop, he spotted another old guy next to Eiji.
When Fujin arrived, they showed him a map of Konoha that showed the plots he had for sale. There were 5 that were suitable for Fujin. However, 3 of them were close to the residential areas of the Uchiha, Hyuga and Aburame clans. Fujin didn't consider those.
One of the plots caught his eye though. It was a 2,500 square meters (around 26k square feet) plot. It was about 100 meters away from the civilian residential area. No clan was close to this place. And Training Ground 23 was very close to here!
Fujin visited the plot along with the two old men and decided to buy it.
Eiji was shocked again! Today was not a good day for his heart. He asked, "You want to buy the whole plot and not just a small part of it to build your house?"
His friend looked at him with a frown on his face! He was stopping his business.
Fujin said, "Oh, we can buy a small part of it as well. What's its cost?"
Eiji's friend replied, "That area is very far from the center of the village. So the prices are cheap. I can sell a 1000 square feet area plot for one hundred thousand Ryo. But, if you buy the entire plot, I can sell it to you for 2 million Ryo."
Fujin thought, 'Not bad, that's much better. Though still quite expensive. Anyways, I don't have any big expenses lined up.'
He looked at Eiji and asked, "How much will constructing a house cost?"
Eiji answered, "It depends on how big a house you want. A house like the ones I showed you first will cost around 500 thousand Ryo to construct."
Fujin replied, "Great."
He looked at his friend and said, "I'll buy the entire plot then. Can you go any cheaper, old man?"
Eiji and his friend only had one thought, 'How rich is this kid?'
Fujin bargained over the price for a bit. In the end, he bought the whole plot for 1.6 million Ryo. They did all the paperwork for the land transfer.
Fujin then discussed the design of the house with Eiji. Eiji showed some of his plans. In the end, Fujin decided on a great-looking design, built on an area of 4,000 square feet at the center of the plot, with three storeys and 2 basement floors.
They began discussing the price and the time needed to construct the house. Eiji had seen Fujin bargain earlier. He said. "Don't bother discussing the price of construction with me. I'll quote you the lowest price. Constructing this house will cost you 1.8 million Ryo and it will take around 7-8 months to be entirely built."
Fujin frowned, "7-8 months? That long?"
Eiji sighed and replied, "Do you think making a house is easy, kid? My men will first have to dig a deep hole to lay down a proper foundation. The digging itself will take 2-3 months. And your house will be very big. So we will need time to make it properly."
Fujin thought, 'That's reasonable.'
He asked, "I have one question, old man. Will you be digging the entire ground, or do you have to leave some pillars for support?"
Eiji was surprised by that question. He didn't expect to hear it from Fujin. He replied, "We will be digging the entire ground. Pillars made from the ground aren't very sturdy."
Fujin said, "Okay, I can get the digging done quickly then."
Eiji asked, "Do you have an affinity for Earth nature manipulation?"
Fujin was surprised. He thought, 'I didn't expect a civilian to know about nature manipulation. Makes sense though. There should have been other ninjas who did the same.'
He nodded, "Yes."
Eiji replied, "That's great. Alright then. Once you have completed digging, I will reduce the construction cost depending on how much work is done."
Fujin nodded and asked, "Another question. Will this house be able to withstand any attacks?"
Eiji replied, "Only very weaker ones. If you want, I can invite a Seal Master to inscribe seals on your house to make it more sturdy. But even then, it won't be able to stop something very powerful. But, we are in Konoha. Such attacks won't happen on us anyways."
Fujin looked at him thinking, 'Yeah, there will be two deadly attacks on us within a decade. The house is certain to be destroyed by Pain. I'd just prefer it to survive Sound and Sand invasion.'
Fujin said, "Alright. You can invite the seal master then."
Eiji replied, "Inviting a seal master will increase the costs."
Fujin asked, "How much?"
Eiji answered, "I will have to talk with him. You can expect an additional 500 thousand to 1 million Ryo cost."
Fujin's eyes widened. He thought, 'Fucking million Ryo for just inscribing some seals? If money could be used to get stronger, I'd have stopped going for missions and worked as a seal master all the time!'
Fujin said, "Alright."
Eiji replied, "I will need a week to test this ground and decide on a plan to proceed. So come to my shop after a week. Once I have marked everything, you can dig the hole."
Fujin nodded and left. While leaving he thought, 'I didn't think that I would blow up almost the entire bounty rewards on the house. I could have saved money on the seal master. But I haven't ever professionally worked as a seal master other than selling storage scrolls.
And, putting seals on the house once it is done won't be as effective as applying them while constructing it. Let's forget it, I am not short on money. So it's fine. I will have to inspect the seals later though. I doubt a professional would try anything funny, but it is always better to be vigilant. Fuinjutsu has a lot of applications.'
