Starring:
Date: October 24, 2015
Summary:
Shinobu, Kyu, and Kenta help with the grand re-opening of one of Konohagakure’s candy shops!
"Sweet Deals, Kyuketsuki’s Recovery"
Konohagakure
Today's mission was an easy D rank mission! Why? Because Kyu needed to get back in-duty! Kenta was with him, of course, to make sure that Kyu wouldn't over-exert himself, and Shinobu and Kame were here because the pair were supposed to make up for Kyu's lack of strength from spending the past few months in bed all the time. Kame is bouncing in her spot, eager for the mission as well as seeing Kyu. Shinobu is standing there waiting patiently.
The mission itself would be Kenta-approved! It was making sure that the candy store was being run properly. The shop owner was about to have a grand re-opening after one of the attacks on Konoha (for one reason or another), and reconstruction and re-buying supplies just took forever. The reward for the mission would be a sack of candy and a bit of Ryo.
It's exactly the type of mission that Kenta believes Kyu needs to ease into things. A grand reopening of a store can be a hectic event and a very draining one, but not -nearly- as bad as a field mission that requires a lot of physical activity. Even though Kyu -would- be challenged physically, the environment is a safe one to get used to that type of stress. The medic-nin makes sure to arrive at his student's place early to pick up the boy. This also gives him a chance to dose Kyu with energy boosting and pain reducing medication in preparation for the big event. Now, he's leading the recovering Genin towards the store in question. "Umm… let me know if you need me to hold your arm or anything, Kyu," Kenta's saying as they arrive at the entrance.
Kyu walks beside Kenta, still uneasy about walking without the crutches. He's still wearing his signature black cloak. Kyu stumbles every few steps but manages to stay upright. He seems to be struggling but is doing everything he can to seem normal. "Hai Kenta-sensei, I'll be fine. Just don't mind me stumbling and tripping." Kyu looks at Shinobu and smiles, "Oh, hello Shinobu-chan, and Kame. Hope you haven't been waiting long, I couldn't run here."
Kame perks up at seeing Kyu, and she runs around his feet a few times, tail wagging eagerly. Yip! ~Hi, Kyu! Ready? For the mission! I mean…~ Shinobu bows quickly to Kenta and says, "Umm… The shop is right here… So let's go in…" The group would enter the candy store and a young man would greet them with gusto. "Hello! Hello! Opening is in one hour. I need to make sure all the stocks are full and the prices are right. Also, there are a few candies that are needing to be made at the last minute, so let's be quick. You on the crutches, cash register. Make sure we have enough Ryo for change. Person with the dog, you check the stock rooms. Here's the list of candy. And you other person, I need you to help me make these chocolate treats. Cutting up fudge, dipping fruit… Etc!!"
Kenta glances at the others in the group. He looks surprised, since he thought that he'd just be supervising. Nevertheless, Kenta doesn't really mind helping, so he just shrugs his shoulders and smiles slightly at the other shinobi. "Ummm… it's a good thing I have experience making candy," he tells them. The young man turns to the manager that greeted them and bows politely. "I'm Akiyama Kenta and I'm glad to help. Please show me where you need me for the candy preparations. Ummm… my companions are Inuzuka Shinobu, Inuzuka Kame and Uchiha Kyu." Kenta points out each person as he utters his or her name.
Kyu smiles at the pup, but can't understand her. "Calm down Kame." Then Shinobu suggests they get down to business. "Hai." And then follows the others in, and blinks as he's suddenly assigned the cash register, "hai." Kyu says as he moves to the register, standing behind it. When he's introduce he offers a friendly smile and a wave.
The man nods in greeting, then drags Kenta off to parts unknown! He doesn't seem to care so much about names. "We need these strawberries dipped. And the cherries. We got raspberry clusters, bananas…" Shinobu takes the list she was given and skins through it while she makes her way to the back, reading off the candies while Kame seeks them out. So far so good! Kyu would have to count the money in the register, and he would find 10000 Ryo worth of money, though a lot were small change.
"Kyu, call out if you need me. Ummm… please make sure he doesn't overdo himself, Shinobu-chan," Kenta tells the others before he disappears into the candy making parts of the shop with the manager. The young man inspects the trays full of cut fruit and the bowls of tempered chocolate in front of him. "Let me wash my hands first. Do you prefer if I wear gloves too…?" he asks the man. There's a pause there at the end to allow the guy to inject a name or something to call him by.
Kyu carefully counts every coin in the register, making sure he doesn't miscount. When Kenta calls out to him, Kyu doesn't look up, but calls "Hai Kenta-sensei!" in response. Standing still seems to be something Kyu can do, managing to stay upright and not collapse. He also leans his crutches against the counter as he counts. He seems rather focused and fixated on the task at hand.
"Excellent idea! There's a sink and a few gloves. Just there!" the owner says, already setting to work himself. By the time the hour is up, everything was likely properly set up. Shinobu had determined that there was nothing in the sticks that were bad or miscounted, so she joined Kyu at the register while Kame flopped by the boy's feet. "Just a few more seconds!" the owner calls, eyeing the crowd of kids that are peeking in at the door and giggling excitedly.
Kenta couldn't see all the excitement going on outside in the main room, but the feeling of anticipation pervades everything. After he washes his hands, puts on gloves and even a hairnet, he gets to work in earnest. If the owner thinks that Kenta needs any tips, that assumption would be wrong. He might not be a master confectionary able to make the most elaborate of candies, but dipping fruit and caramel squares into chocolate is something that he can do in his sleep.
Kyu finishes counting and nods when he is ABSOLUTELY SURE nothing is missing. He may even activate his Sharingan if he has to to make DARN sure he didn't miscount! All he does however is rather easily counts out the money and then close the register. Awaiting the horde of children to rush in. As he does and Shinobu joins him, he briefly looks at her then back forward, waiting. Then the 'just a few more sconds!' rings out and Kyu even seems a tad bit worried. Hopefully he doesn't mess this up or something…
Shinobu glances at the door when the shop owner moves to open it. 3… 2… 1… The doors burst open once they're unlocked and the poor manager would have gotten trampled by all the kids if they weren't tiny! At least a hundred Konoha children of all ages were in the candy shop, small hands grabbing greedily at the different candies that were being offered. Kenta's treats that he was making were actually a backup batch, meaning that some of the fudges could still be sold when the doors opened. Kyu and Shinobu have little to do as well, since no one is buying until later. They just keep it in their bags for later checkout.
Kenta stops working and looks over his shoulder when he hears the sudden roar of many young voices. "Ummm… should I go out there and help the others?" he asks with a hint of worry in his voice. The medic-nin now regrets not having set up a telepathic link between all members of the small shinobi team beforehand. It would be much easier to simply stay where he is and check from afar whether Kyu's handling the stress well enough or not. As it is, he might have to step outside and that could create an unwanted disruption to proceedings.
Kyu blinks at the rushing children. It is in fact stressful and worrysome, but Kyu smiles at them as friendly as he can manage. Despite the stress, it doesn't seem to be affecting Kyu much. Besides his eyes tracking one kids movement, then darting to another, then darting to another. He is passively trying to keep tabs on which kid has what, trying to memorize the contents of every bag. "That's a lot of kids… Hopefully I don't lose count of the money or something." Kyu idly comments to Shinobu, he seems almost as if he's in that state of meditative focus again. Zoned partially out. He doesn't seem to be having any difficulties just yet. None that would require Kenta.
The group of children would continue to stream through the open doorways, and eventually a few would be making their way to the register to start buying their candy. At some point or another, one of the candies ran out, and a fight (nothing terrible, but one that could be considered severe amongst little kids!) breaks out! "Gimme back that caramel cluster!" pouts one boy. The little girl just sticks out her tongue. "Beehhhh! You were too slow to grab it!" she taunts, resulting in a swift punch being thrown.
Shinobu looks a bit alarmed as a fight breaks out, and the two offenders would find themselves in a genjutsu of many puppies trying to get pets, meaning that the pair would break off of arguing… For now. Phew! The shop owner was about to tell Kenta to head out and break up the fight, but apparently there's no more fighting! "No, no. I need you back here. Thanks for helping, by the way!"
"Ummm… it sounds like the caramel are all gone outside," Kenta says. He cocks his head with his left ear pointed towards the door to try to catch more snippets of the conversations (and arguments) outside. After a second, Kenta nods. "I'll make more. Those must be favorites." The young man spins into action. He pulls out another tray of cooled caramel from one of the racks and uses a sharp knife to partition the sticky slab into mostly equally sized bits. After that, Kenta breaks them all apart, creates small clusters out of them and dunk each one into tempered chocolate. This is set aside on wax paper to harden. Hopefully, there are some pre-made batches that's ready for sale too.
Kyu looks as alarmed as Shinobu does and looks like he's about to spring into action when he notices the fight stop. He looks at Shinobu, and nods with a slight smile "I assume you did that? Impressive."
"Yes, yes! Just keep working!" the man says distractedly, rushing to put out candies and hand them out to kids. It's really sucky that all his workers bailed at the last minute. Then again, grand re-openings were chaotic. Hopefully it wouldn't be like this later on! Shinobu peeks over at Kyu and blushes faintly, nodding slowly. "H…. Hai.." she says, keeping an eye on the two fighters. They would be under the spell until it seemed they were both happy, and in that amount of time, the shop owner would have more caramel clusters! More kids would come up to the register, buying bags of candy. Looks like Kyu has some work on his hands!
Kenta glances around the workroom when the owner rushes out with a batch of caramel clusters. When he sees no one else is watching, he carefully makes a few hand seals and bends over the freshly dipped trays to blow very gently on them. A thin stream of chakra is releases as a gentle, cool breeze. It won't really make the chocolate harden that much quicker, but maybe it'll help. Kenta doesn't have much time though, so he stops it as soon as he thinks the owner might be returning and goes to chop up some more fruit for candy.
Kyu begins taking children's money! And putting it into the register of course after making sure proper change is returned as well as the proper amount was paid! As he does, and inbetween, 'Thank you, have a wonderful day!'s he casually comments to Shinobu, "I see you've gotten much better at Genjutsu since I've been… away. I assume you've learned new techniques as well, perhaps you could show me them at some point. Later on."
Shinobu would nod quietly, helping Kyu with the cash register duty and also assisting in getting candy for the store manager while Kame would get to play with all the children. It was very much a win for the pup and children, for she got pets and the kids got to play with the cute puppy! Eventually, though, the rush of the crowd would begin to die down until there were only twenty people in the candy store, which is still a lot. "Humhum! Kenta - yes, you - I need more chocolate covered strawberries. We're out again! And maybe another batch of the caramel clusters, too. Indeeed… Oh, the one with the dog, could you go and fetch some more black licorice wheels?"
Kenta nods his head up and down. "Coming right up," he tells the owner. The young man looks at his badly stained gloves and decides to ditch it for a fresh pair. By now, there's so much fruit juice, sugar and chocolate smeared over the fingers that he's at risk of contaminating newer batches of candy with the wrong flavors. As soon as he tugs on a fresh pair of gloves, Kenta goes right back into action. The clip-clip-clip of a knife hitting against a cutting board can be heard as he slices away the leaves of each strawberry to make them dippable.
Kyu is relieved as the crowd dies down and sighs a small sigh of relief. He watches as Shinobu is called away and stands where he has been standing. He can clearly hear Kenta's slicing of leaves. He continues taking, counting, and returning the change of the money paid for the candy. He always thanks the children in as friendly a manner as he can think of, and inbetween customers, at any lulls, would observe the children playing happily with Kame.
With the day ending, the shop would empty, and everyone would likely breathe a sigh of relief. "Well! I doubt I'll be seeing many customers. Thank you all for the help! You're all free to take what candy you will, by the way!" the shop owner says once he closes the building. Shinobu peeks between Kenta and Kyu to make sure they're both good. She was happy that she was able to help out, too! She just sort of ended up darting here and there to help out people, as she had no singular task.
Kenta has finished cleaning up the work space and then his own clothing by the time the place is closed down. "We're glad to help. That's what we were paid to do and we always do the best that we can on a job," Kenta tells the owner with a serious expression on his face. He also bows slightly. "Ummm… I'd just like to have a small bag of licorice pinwheels to bring home with me, please. My grandmother loves licorice."
