Starring:
Rockpath (emitter), Kaido, Kyuketsuki
Date: February 4, 2015
Summary:
Someone is messing with the local ramen house, and it's up to a few genin to figure out who's behind it and why
"Ra-Ra-Ramen Saboteur!"
Konohagakure - Ramen House
Within the village of Konohagakure, there was a food shop that is widely-known. Quite famous to even those outside the village, actually! It was the Ramen House. Business for it was typical. Many people coming in to eat, drink, have fun with friends and family, and most of all… eat. However, complaints started to drift through the kitchen and to the manager's ears. There was something… odd about the broth, they said. A certain flavor that didn't quite belong to the delectable meal. It became so infamous within a few days that on the fourth day of its rumor, no one showed up when it opened.
Well, that wouldn't do! The managers immediately called upon Konoha to figure out what was wrong! And the village, in turn, sent its genin to take up the call. Inuzuka Kaido and Bandit were selected for their (questioned) intellect and their clan senses. Uchiha Kyuketsuki was selected because he was some of the freshest meat they could find and get roped into this kind of mission. The shop owner/manager stood outside the door, looking more nervous and worried than anyone could ever possibly be. It was as if someone told him his child was dying (which, technically, was true…).
Kyu approaches the owner silently and bows respectfully. "I was sent to help with your.. broth sir." he stands up straight and looks the man in the eyes, waiting for him to respond.
Kaido and Bandit were arguing as they walk on up, Bandit saying, "Why did you agree to go on this mission, it's beneath our skills! They're rubbing our noses in it!" Kaido says, "Bandit! You know we need the money! Naruko is living with us while she's here and I've gone broke keeping the place stocked with food!" Bandit snorts and says, "But seriously? THIS is the mission you decide to go on? Sniffing out what's wrong with BROTH of all things???" Kaido sighs as they come closer and says, "You KNOW we've been demoted and our choices of missions limited to inside the village, what do you want us to do? Starve? And hey, if we do things right, we might even get free food out of the bargain!"
Bandit and Kaido walk up then and looks at Kyuketsuki and nod to the much younger Genin (Kaido and Bandit look like they've been around for quite a while) and says, "Hey kid, they choose you to help out on this little assignment? You have the look of a Uchiha." Kaido sizes the boy up for a moment and then offers a short bow, "Name's Inuzuka Kaido, and that's my nin-ken partner, Bandit"
Kyuketsuki turns his attention to Kaido and thinks for a moment. "I think I've heard of you…" he stops there, remembering and deciding not to insult the person who is not only older than him but going to be his partner in this as well.
The shopkeeper brights upon seeing the shinobi come into view. Both were customers of his restaurant at one point, and Kaido especially so thanks to the invisible fence around the village for the Inuzuka and Naruko dropping in. "Kaido-san! Bandit-kun! I'm glad to have you two on the job! And Kyu-san, last I saw you, you were only this tall!" He smiles a bit, then seriousness crosses his features. "Sorry to cut the chit-chat short, but time is money, and I'm losing it fast! The basic gist is something or someone is messing with our restaurant's main food, and it's driving my customers away! I want you three to investigate this and catch the perpetrators." He grins a bit. "I read a mystery novel lately," the owner comments with a wink. "That being said, please look around. All my staff are here, so feel free to ask them some questions."
Kyu nods at the man. "Yes sir. I will do my best not to dissapoint." Despite the respect in Kyu's tone his face looks rather frustrated and he then looks at Kaido briefly before walking forward into the Ramen shop.
Bandit looks at Kaido and says, "See? Even /Academy/ graduates know who we are… I /told/ you your plan was a bad one, but did you listen to me… oh NOOOOOOO!" Kaido sighs and says, "I made a miscalculation ok?? I should have just stayed in Kumo and came back when they recalled me… but that's ok… we'll get over this, once our year is up, things will go back to normal" Bandit just facepaws and when the shopkeeper greets them, Kaido and Bandit give a bit of a tired, "Yo!" to him.
When they're greeted and the job explained, Kaido and Bandit look at each other and then Kaido says, "Well, looks like a mystery to me, where should we start looking Bandit?" Bandit looks up and gives Kaido a complete look of disgust and says, "Why, the kitchen of course, you moron! Where else?" Kaido glares at Bandit and then turns to Kyu and says, "We'll search the kitchen, do you want to handle talking to the staff? Some of them… well, the ladies especially, won't talk to us… for various reasons." With that, they head into the kitchen to see what they can sniff out.
Kyu looks around, looking for the least busy looking cook, deciding that waitresses are less likely to have to do with the food quality going down. He politely walks up to the least busy cook and bows. "Excuse me, I'm a Genin level ninja sent to investigate the food quality in this shop dropping dramatically, I wanted to know if there is anything at all you can tell me about this, any information, I'm sure, would be very helpful."
Kaido and Bandit on the other hand, look at each cook with a gimlet eye as they stroll through the kitchen. Bandit is sniffing around and Kaido says mildly, "You all know who we are… and what we can do… which INCLUDES being able to sniff out anything suspicious in spices and herbs since we handle poisons and antidotes. If ANY of you would like to speak up now and save yourself from us finding out and making your punishment worse… now is the time to do it." Kaido glances at each cook in the eye waits for a long few seconds before he glances down at Bandit and shrugs, "Guess we do this the hard way then… Bandit?"
Bandit looks up at Kaido and nods and starts to put his nose down and sniff the air, moving from cook to cook, heading to shifty man at the broth-making station.
The woman that Kyu walked up to looks down at the boy. She, not being on the 'front lines' did not recognize the Uchiha. She complies to the request, though, saying, "I don't know much… We help make the broth and meat. We put in the various spices and vegetables until it tastes just right, but lately it's been tasting odd. We've tried to hide it using different combinations of herbs, but it's not working very well for some reason. I think it's not strong enough, but it's too odd…"
Those in the kitchen straighten up just a bit, but none speak up. The shifty man eyes Bandit as the nin-ken nears. "That dog o' yes… Can you keep 'im away? I'm allergic to dogs," he tells Kaido, moving down the kitchen to keep a distance from Bandit. There are no visible signs of any allergic reaction at the moment, but the Inuzua has yet to actually come over. A rather polished-looking chef calls over, "You're just afraid of dogs 'cause that one bit ya when you were a kid!" The jeering makes the shifty man's face redden. "D-Don't /tell/ everyone that!" he hisses.
Kyu nods and thinks for a moment. "So you can't think of even one person, or one thing that may have been responsible? Is it possible your herbs could've gone bad? I just need to find out why this is happening."
Kaido smirks and Bandit growls and snaps his teeth at the shifty-looking cook and says, "Mmm… I love the taste of terror in the evening… tastes like… VICTORY!" Kaido chuckles then and pats Bandit on the head, "Easy partner, we only eat them if they're guilty." Kaido then stops in front of the broth being made and takes a spoon and says, "You make the broth? What do you put in it?" He asks the cowering cook as he dips the spoon in, and carefully taking a sip, using his taste buds and enhanced knowledge of herbs and spices and things you put in poisons to single out each ingredient to see what's being put in there first off that's making it taste wrong.
The broth cook dabs his head with a napkin, saying, "Mostly vegetables… Oil… Carrots, onions… Leeks, cabbage when it's closer to finishing…. Mushrooms sometimes. Most of it starts off with oil and then I add in vegetables and herbs from those at the vegetable station. Right now it has those. I think it tastes fine, though… There's nothing in it!" The man has sweat pouring down his brow, and he attempts to wipe it in vain. Kaido would find that everything the man has said was true, even if he didn't really like it. The herbs tasted fresh, as did the vegetables. There was nothing 'odd' about this broth! … Hmm…
And the same argument would be presented to Kyu. "We always try to pick what we use fresh. We buy from the local markets, and even sample it ourselves if we think it looks bad. It's only Thursday, and we get our things on Saturday. But people have been complaining since the early week. Unless our vendor did something different, I don't think it was our fault," answers the woman honestly.
Kyu nods at the cook. "Thank you for helping, Ill go join my partner now and see if hes doing alright." with that Kyu turns and begins heading towards where Kaido went.
Kaido hmms and sniffs around the station and then walks over to the perspiring cook as Bandit growls and stalks the man. Kaido then crosses his arms and says, "You seem… off, a little too warm in here for you?" He raises an eyebrow as Bandit stops right at the man's feet and starts to sniff the man and Kaido cautions, "I wouldn't move if I were you… Bandit can smell fear, and he really LIKES his meat scared. Would you like to try and explain why the broth has been off lately? It IS your responsibility after all…" Kaido cocks his head as Bandit continues his perusal of the man with his nose.
"Honestly, I don't know," says the man, paling as Bandit comes right up to him. "You tasted it, right? It's perfectly fine? I have no idea why people are complaining of it, pleasedon'teatme ><" The man seems more terrified of Bandit than anything, and it also seems he is telling the truth (if Kaido and Bandit can sense that). Whenever Bandit moves away, the man breathes a sigh of relief, trying to regain his composure.
Kyu walks in and sees the man cowering against the wall, instead of questioning whats going on, Kyu decides this might be significantly more intresting to watch than to interrupt and remains silent, simply watching the scene, but still moving towards Kaido.
Bandit would eventually notice an odd scent that didn't smell like the traditional meats one would put in a soup. There was beef, chicken, pork… But something else… Odd… Coming from the meat station. Near it was the head of that station. It was the rather clean-looking fellow that took a jab at the broth-cook earlier. No one says anything for the time being, as no one really knows anything. and the person who did this obviously isn't going to speak up…
Kyu continues watching the room as he responds to the question asked of him "From what I could gather it seems as though the cooks havent been doing anything suspecious, the cook I spoke to told me it could possibly be the vendors or something, I thought maybe it could be the person they get their herbs and stuff from.. I don't know."
Bandit sniffs and then glances at Kaido, and then his eyes light on the clean-looking cook that was taunting the other cook before. Kaido raises an ayebrow and then Bandit says, "Veeeeeeeery interesting… I smell with my little nose… something that doesn't belong here…" Kaido walks over and motions with a hand behind him for Kyu to block off the exit and says, "Oh really?"
Kaido raises an eyebrow at the cook and says, "You were the one who was taunting the broth cook, weren't you? Do I detect a little jealousy there? Maybe you wanted his job and you decided to sabotage him so that you could get him fired and replace him? Bandit keeps sniffing, locating the exact source of the smell that's off. Kaido pulls out a kunai and runs a finger over the edge, drawing a line of blood and says, "If I have to, I can use a special poison I've made that forces people to speak the truth… I'd prefer not to, it has… 'side effects'."
… Well, that's enough to make any good civilian talk! The man Kaido has now turned his attention to pales visibly and manages, "… That's not why…" He then blinks. Why the heck did he- oh, right. Poison… "I work for a smaller ramen shop down the way…" he admits. And from there, he can just imagine the little pieces of the puzzle clicking together in everyone's minds, resulting in him trying to sink in his spot.
Kyu stands at the door, now looking quite intrigued, he watches the man and awaits further orders silently.
Bandit growls and then Kaido says, "So you decided to sabotage the broth to stir up more business for your own shop?" He asks ask he reaches into his vest for a small vial of amber liquid and a dart. He glares at the man and looks him straight in the eye, "Now here's the important question, and if you try to lie to me, it's not going to end well for you…" He lets the man have a full few seconds to think of the consequences and says, "Did you do this on your own, or were you under orders?"
The man doesn't hesitate to say, "It was my own doing, sir. No one told me to do it." Well, at least he doesn't back away from responsibility. That was something good about him. "I guess I was just taking my rivalry with my friend there a little too far," he says, gesturing to the broth cook, who looks rather horrified right now. "How could you..?" he mumbles under his breath, wondering how he didn't realize his best friend was trying to sabotage him…
Kyu's visably smiling at the outcome of this. "and here I thought this would be another boring old Genin task." He leans on the doorframe and watches, still smiling at this outcome, he didnt expect anything on this task to be particularly intresting, nor fun.
Kaido then puts away the dart and vial and shoves the cook in front of him and says to Kyu, "Kyu, you can have the honor of taking him to the manager who hired us for this job and explaining what we've learned and leave it up to him to decide how he wants to handle it from here." Bandit yawns and says, "If it was me, I'd cut him up into pieces and drop him in his own shop's ramen…" Kaido blinks and then stares down at Bandit, "Uh, I think that's a bit too extreme there."
The meat-maker shuffles off with Kyu to meet his impending doom, looking… Well, not happy, but not upset. He expected to get caught. He expects to be out of a job. And by the end of all this, he fully expects to be homeless. The nervous broth-maker is still shaking his head in disbelief, wiping his brow a bit before moving to get everyone's attention. "People, we gotta get back to work. Start advertising our shop. Get rid of all our meat for now. We'll order a fresh batch later. Vegetarian menu for today."
Outside, Kyu gets a grateful smile and a few Ryo for helping out, then the manager sends the meat-maker to his office while he goes to thank Kaido. "Kaido-san, in thanks, I'll let you two have a week's worth of free meals! Umm… You and Bandit-kun, I mean. I suggest coming after we restock and all." He gives them a clap on the back and slips Kaido some extra Ryo for being such an awesome customer. Shhh…
Kyu bows in thanks and pockets the Ryo, he looks around and decides his job here is done and heads off, back to boredly wandering
Kaido chuckles and says, "It's not a problem Buntaro-kun, glad I could help, once they let me out of the village again, I'll start hunting for new and different herbs and spices for you like usual." He pockets the ryo himself, feverently glad that he'll actually be able to get his rent paid now as Bandit pipes up, "Free meals for a week?? Awesome!" Bandit runs around the manager excitedly and then says to Kaido, "Anyways partner, we need to get back, isn't your honey waiting for you back home for training?" Kaido just glares at his nin-ken before they walk off themselves.
