Ten cans were laid out before Teuchi.
Shen Mo picked up his chopsticks again, digging into the ramen Teuchi had made.
Though it couldn't match the Food Wars! cuisine bought from the System, it was still delicious.
Teuchi watched Shen Mo's actions, as if stirred by some resolve.
"I never thought about reaching some grand culinary peak," Teuchi said, bending down to slowly open a cabinet. "But I want, at the very least, for every customer at Ichiraku Ramen to leave satisfied."
A thick stack of coins was placed before Shen Mo.
Five hundred thousand.
Worth thirty thousand Trade Points, enough for a set of tier-one cans.
"Here you go."
Shen Mo waved his hand, and the money vanished.
"Let me, let me open them!" Naruto reached out eagerly.
Thwack.
Tsunade's fist slammed down on Naruto's head.
"These cans are best opened by Teuchi himself," she said, recalling Shen Mo's words.
Cansrepresented a change in the opener's destiny.
This was Teuchi's dream.
Honestly, dreams being realized this way?
Tsunade kept wolfing down her ramen.
And Teuchi…
He stared at the cans, swallowed hard, and slowly extended his hand.
The others—even Sasuke—watched with bated breath.
Shen Mo had hyped these cans as miraculous, with talk of Gourmet Hunters, destiny changes, and Tsunade, a legendary ninja, acting so oddly.
It felt like…
Opening a can might trigger something extraordinary.
In this charged atmosphere, Teuchi finally touched the first can.
He picked it up, opening it slowly.
Inside… a can of edamame?
Teuchi poured it out—indeed, just edamame.
"What? Just edamame?" Naruto said, visibly disappointed. "Five hundred thousand yen for a can, and it's just some beans?"
"This?"
Sasuke frowned at Shen Mo, his eyes brimming with unspoken disappointment.
All that hype…
Was this guy just a con artist?
"Not ordinary edamame, I bet," Tsunade said, well-versed in the cans' quirks.
"Exactly," Shen Mo said, nodding with a smile. "Luck's a bit off—this item's value isn't high, but it's rare. Mr. Teuchi, crack open a pod."
Shen Mo's words reignited everyone's curiosity.
From the outside, these looked like plain edamame.
Teuchi didn't hesitate.
He grabbed a pod and split it open.
"Ah—!" Sakura let out a shrill squeak, startled.
Because…
Inside were round, rolling eyeballs!
Yes, eyeballs—minus the bloodshot veins.
White sclera, black pupils.
Forget Sakura—even Naruto and Sasuke felt a chill.
"This is a special edamame called Eyebranch Beans," Shen Mo explained with a chuckle. "They look scary, but the taste is great. Paired with sake, they've got a unique aroma—a rare treat for booze hounds."
This bizarre delicacy, naturally, came from the Torikoworld.
Shen Mo had packed these cans with all sorts of wondrous ingredients.
"Booze snack?" Tsunade perked up. "Teuchi, you've got sake here, right? Pour me some to try."
Though a ramen shop, many ninjas liked a drink, so Ichiraku kept a small stock of sake.
Teuchi pulled out a bottle.
He poured Tsunade a cup, then one for himself, and popped the grim-looking beans into his mouth.
"This… this is…" In the instant he tasted them, Teuchi's eyes widened, his face alight with awe. "What a marvelous aroma! It's still edamame, but it's like it sprouted under the sake's flavor… indescribable."
"See?" Shen Mo shrugged.
"Teuchi-ojisan, is it really that good?" Naruto asked, eyeing Teuchi's reaction, a tad conflicted.
"No way I'm eating that!" Sakura shivered.
"If used for brewing—no, for making sake-scented ramen…" Teuchi's eyes gleamed with fervor.
And he wasn't the only one.
Sasuke's gaze burned too.
These cans really held wondrous things? Could they, as this man claimed, make you stronger?
Teuchi carefully stowed the Eyebranch Beans.
Then, he opened the next can.
A cutting technique experience orb, a sweet ginger box for cleansing lingering flavors, delicious seasoning, aloe for treating wounds…
All unheard-of, utterly magical items.
Of course, there was the obligatory dud—ten thousand yen.
Until the second-to-last can, he finally hit the jackpot: a partial secret seasoning recipe (one-third).
"Mr. Shen Mo, why's this recipe only a third?" Teuchi's face was almost frantic, like a fan reading a gripping novel that cut off mid-cliffhanger, his heart itching as if swarmed by ants.
"Hmph, typical trick," Tsunade said, her expression sour. "I still haven't completed my medical technique manual."
She'd opened twenty sets of tier-one cans, and that medical technique manual was still incomplete—worst of all, she'd gotten duplicates!
Knowledge items? Duplicates were just scrap paper.
"No helping it," Shen Mo said, spreading his hands. "Tier-one cans' price can't yield a full recipe."
No way around it.
This collect-to-complete gimmick was a business tactic—how could he not milk it?
Teuchi was already feeling that itch.
That desperate urge to open another set of cans.
But for now, one can remained.
Teuchi gingerly tucked the incomplete recipe into his pocket, then, with a mix of nerves and anticipation, opened the last one.
Inside was a single, small, bright red fruit.
"Well, look at that," Shen Mo said, impressed. "Teuchi, your luck's pretty good. That's a Vermilion Strength Fruit. Taste is so-so, but eat it, and it'll boost your strength a bit."
From some xuanhuanworld.
It could add about ten pounds of arm strength—not bad at all.
"Boost strength?" Sasuke spoke up suddenly. "Isn't this the Food Series?"
Sasuke said little but listened keenly.
From Shen Mo and Tsunade's words, he'd pieced it together.
These cans…
They came in different series.
Teuchi's were Food Series, hence the array of ingredients and partial recipes.
"Chefs need strength too—like kneading dough requires plenty of it," Shen Mo explained, turning to look at Sasuke.
Sasuke, though he tried to hide it…
His eyes betrayed him.
He… was tempted.
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