Ichigo Shop Needs Help! [Modded Mission]

[Tatsuo]

It was a common occurrence for the Academy to send out students to help with odd jobs around the village, today was no different when Miyako was told to help bus tables for a restaurant expecting a particularly busy night. After a quick briefing, informing her that their busser quit the night before and no one else able to pick up the shift they pleaded to the Academy to send someone over. Miyako’s name was chosen and one of her academy teachers informed her of the job, giving her directions to a small restaurant apparently called the Ichigo Shop.

The weather was nice, sweater weather most likely. The summer was being pushed away from the cold winds and longer nights. If one hated the scorching summer heat, this newfound cold front would probably be well received.

It was a hole in the wall place and had she not been looking for it she may have missed it. A large wooden door that seemed to sink into the door and a plain sign which read ‘Ichigo Shop’ was almost camouflaged amongst the more colorful signs and advertisements that filled the streets of the Red Oak District.

There were a few windows but the lights seemed to be off, however upon closer inspection the door was slightly ajar but not allowing her to peer inside. Standing at the doorstep of the Ichigo Shop, what would Miyako do?

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

Miyako sighs loudly as she looks at the door, this was not how she wanted to spend her night. The academy insisted, however because she hasn't done much training as of lately. She has to do this gain a better reputation with her teachers and that's one of the most important things to her success at this point. She enters the seemingly run down shop and looks around, this place is bustling for being a hole in the wall! There are a ton of dirty dishes laying around and she's going to have to pick up all of them! Miyako sighs somewhat angrily again and goes to seek out the manager, hoping that he's a nice fellow.

 

[Tatsuo]

Just as the girl entered the shop the and took a quick glance around a kuani flew past cutting a single thread of her hair from the bangs at her head. Whoever threw that kunai had precision that was un-human almost, whoever through it must've been quite the ranger. Whenever she finally did notice the man she would see him being even shorter than her. He was barely four and a half feet, but looked grizzled as if he was the toughest veteran. He wore a semi opened Yukata, which showed deep and thick scars going all the way up from his upper abdomen to his forehead. Whoever he was he had obviously seen lots of combat and despite his size he let out an aura of all out intimidation.

When the man opened his mouth, he barked with a voice that was deeper than a blow horn. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING RUNNING STRAIGHT INTO MY SHOP ACTING LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE WHAT TYPE OF PERSON DOES THAT DO THEY NOT TEACH NINJA ANYTHING THESE DAYS? DID YOUR PARENTS NOT TEACH YOU TO KNOCK?" the man continued to shout and knocked on a wooden table next to him. "YOU KNOCK LIKE THIS, EVERY ACADEMY STUDENT THEY SEND NEVER KNOCKS. DO PEOPLE EXPECT THAT THE ICHIGO SHOP IS NOT A PLACE TO BE RESPECTED?! DO YOU NOT RESPECT ME?" He grabbed a nearby knife and waved it around as if he was going to throw it once again before letting out a deep sigh. "IF YOU WERE NOT A STUDENT OF LEAF AND NOT SMART ENOUGH TO REALIZE THAT YOU KNOCK.. I WOULD CUT YOU--" he sighed calming himself down once again.

"OKAY, MUST I TEACH YOU HOW TO PUT AWAY PLATE? OR DID THEY TEACH YOU THAT IN ANIMAL BARN HOME YOU CAME FROM?" He looked up to her, arms crossed with eyes that could kill awaiting her response.

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

Miyako's eyes widen as the kunai strikes the wall next to her ear. She could almost feel the blade on her ear, and it even took some of her hair! Miyako's hand falls slowly to catch the incredibly long strands of hair, her palm and fingers carefully curling around the strands. She sighs quietly and her eyes fall on the old man's. She could give him some new scars if he continued to abuse her hair. Awkwardly as he yelled, Miyako stared at him, feeling somewhat uncomfortable about his anger issues and his scars seemed to.. move as he spoke. She gulps in discomfort and tries to instead focus on the man's face, but this just seemed comical to her. A grin slowly curls across her face and she tries her hardest not to laugh. As he slammed his hand on the table, Miyako flinched, not expecting him to do so.

Honestly, she wasn't listening to a world he said, his intensity simply too much for Miyako do deal with. Her fingers curl into small fists and she inhales. With the exhale, her fingers roll back out to flat on her thighs. "I know how to put a plate away, you don't need to teach me." Her response is flat, her tone almost showing off that she's not intimidated by this old man's methods, or his scars.

[344/2000]

 

[Tatsuo]

"GOOD, AT LEAST THEY TEACH YOU SOMETHING AT THE ACADEMY." he pinched the bridge of his nose. It was true the man's intensity was definitely comical, who could imagine so much ferocity could be wrapped into such a small package. When she began to laugh he brought a palm to his face and sighed, "Kids these days.. Okay. Just go ahead and start cleaning. We open in a few hours and every table will need to be cleaned. Real good." he said with a firm nod before throwing down a smoke bomb. "FRUIT NINJA ART: STRAWBERRY SMOKE BOMB." and with a puff of pink, strawberry smelling smoke the man disappeared. Where did he go? There was no way anyone could tell, but she would have a chilling feeling that someone was watching her..

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

Yet again, despite the feeling of eyes on the back of her head, she sighs. Miyako looks around for a few moments before heading towards the counter to grab an apron. Soon enough, she starts to take the dishes from the tables, empty ones first. Her speed is incredible for someone who's never bussed tables before and her abilities to stack plates almost defy gravity! This isn't half bad, Miyako thinks to herself, feeling time already starting to slip away. She comes across various tables and each of them offer a small sort of surprise with the diversity of the customers.

The first table she visited that still had constumers were two old members of the village, ones that didn't really speak to her, only offered her a smile each. She also took the dirty dishes from a table full of academy student boys , unable to believe that they made the dishes dirtier themselves than the food at this place did. She couldn't help but continue to look over her shoulder and into the rafters, her nose filled with the scent of strawberries and even now and again she swears that she notice a small pink cloud still floating around the room. Miyako rubs her fingers together and then continues to buss tables at a speedy pace, only slowing down when it seems like there are no other tables that are currently ready to be bussed.

[580/2000]

 

[Tatsuo]

That feeling she was being watched definitely was still there, the man who never introduced herself was keeping a close eye on her. His business meant the world to him and he was careful to watch any and all people who worked there. Even if they were just temporary employees who he'd likely never see again. Perfection was important and he wanted everything to be right.

It wasn't long before the dinner rush really began, the man had excused himself to the kitchen and was shooting out dishes faster than anyone could imagine. Orders coming out with the speed of a bullet train, food runners trying to keep up and a few waiters stressing out to get whatever the kitchen couldn't do. Despite the ease Miyako found in the hours leading up to this, the dinner rush was like nothing she expected. As soon as a table had left she would need to clear a table, as the wait grew larger and larger the tension to do everything quickly was exaggerated. Within time, whenever she would head out to the back to get more plates or table sets she would hear muffled shouting from behind the kitchen doors.

"WE ARE NINJA WE DO NOT FAIL." Chop Chop! sending fruit flying in perfect one and a half inch slices. "WE MUST SUCCEED! DO NOT STOP!" the man continued to shout, as he prepared food.

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

With the dinner rush, Miyako also began to rush, her mind flying in thousands of different directions as all of the employees impressively bustled around the entire shop. Even though the food runners are visibly stressed out, Miyako sees the experience that they have in what they're doing and somewhat respects it, even though she'd never want to take their place. Still feeling his eyes on her from the kitchen, she feels even more stressed out because this is where she'll most likely fail. The line seems to be piling up all the way to the gates of the village and is growing more and more intimidating by the moment. Though she decides that this is not where she'll fail and she sucks in a deep breath before activating her sharingan and retrieving a red towel from behind the counter to hide the tear droplets of blood that will roll from beneath her eyelids at any moment. The last thing she'd want to do in becoming more efficient is scare the customers with tears of blood.

After doing this, she begins to hustle even further, stepping out of the way of the other employees with ease and stacking plates, bowls, glasses, and more in a way that seems to almost defy physics. Even though the intensity of the rush hasn't settled, Miyako knows that she'll be as successful as possible in the potentially disastrous hours to come. Miyako avoids eye contact with any customers that do not appear to be ninja to also avoid the risk of scaring anyone.

This man's precision is unparalleled and Miyako almost doesn't understand it. She can't help but to grin as she hears him yelling to the kitchen staff, his pride and passion for his business is impressive and Miyako respects this man. It appears that he's lived his life as a ninja and retired to do something that he loves, which Miyako hopes to do some day if she can find something that she truly loves to spend the rest of her life doing.

[921/2000]

 

[Tatsuo]

It was true the man had a passion for his restaurant and a certain amount of skill, as fast as people could order he could cook it up. Miyako would notice that the restaurant would slow down after time, motsly due to the speed of the kitchen staff as a whole. Miyako included, she managed to finally get a hang of things and was cleaning tables fast enough for them to keep coming in. While some restaurants would've had customers leave because of such a long wait, everyone realized how good the food and service was that they stayed. All due to the efforts of everyone in the restaurant.

After about an hour of the big rush there were only a few tables left, the old man walked out of the kitchen, his clothes covered in juice. He walked over to Miyako and placed his head in hands, she could hear the sniffling of him. "I JUDGED YOU TOO HARD, YOU ARE TRULY A GREAT NINJA I AM HAPPY TO SEE THAT PEOPLE OF THE LEAF ARE RAISING SUCH GOOD KIDS. THE VILLGE IS TRULY IN GOOD HANDS." he would shout, making everyone uncomfortable and laugh. Either way it sounded sincere, the man might be intense but it was obvious he wasn't all bad.

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

His sniffling alone made her smile, the truth comes out and she was right about the passion that he has about his business. She wouldn't let this old man and this run down shack of a restaurant down, this was a mission for her and that's how she saw it. Even while this place was still insanely busy, Miyako worked herself to a sweat and never thought that it would be that crazy. After thinking this, however, she never thought it would stop. As the man would come out of the kitchen, she would be panting quiet, truly tired after the rush. His words made Miyako smile and she does feel like she's a truly good ninja most of the time. She also hopes that she can promise this man and former shinobi that she can help to keep the village safe and contribute to its growth in the future.

The intensity of this man is simply a surface characteristic. She sees past this now as he reveals his true gratitude and his soft side. Even though he's covered in scars and has obviously seen quite a few battles in the long time that he's been alive, he's finally retired into a serious, but kindhearted old man and Miyako is grateful that she was able to work for him instead of some crotchety or snobbish business owner.

[1148/2000

 

[Tatsuo]

There was still some work to be done but luckily for Miyako the rush was over. The man continued to have his moment as a few of the waiters walked around with smiles on their faces. Apparently from the whispers and jokes Miyako would hear he did this everytime they had a successful dinner rush. He truly was a passionate man in all things. But it wasn't long before he returned to the kitchen, but not after calling for Miyako to start replacing some of the table cloths around the restaurant. "THE TABLE CLOTHS ARE IN THE BACK, GRAB AS MANY AS YOU CAN, PUT DIRTY ONES IN. ELEVEN CLOTHS, NOT TEN, TEN TOO LITTE, WASTE OF WATER, NOT TWELVE, TWELVE TOO MUCH, BREAK THE MACHINE. NOW GET TO WORK!" he would clap his hands loud getting everyone to rush back to their positions.

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

She could have assumed that he did this every time that they had a successful rush, though she never would want to find out what happened when their rush wasn’t completely successful. Miyako looks around at the waiters, noticing theirs smiling and the lack of their bosses reaction. Even though she felt like she was being watched the entire time, she knew that he no longer watched his current employees and figured that other than the rushes, they had it pretty easy working here.

At the sound of his clap that almost resembled the resounding sound of a large gong being smacked by two men, Miyako rushes to get back to work. After finishing his monolouge, he orders Miyako to start pulling the dirty table cloths, though as she began to look around, she realizes that all of them are dirty! Miyako’s eyes widen for a short moment before she gets back to work, grabbing the first tablecloth and crumbling it into a ball before sticking it under her arm to hold it and move on to the next. The almost overwhelming amount of dirty tablecloths distracts her from the wise words about the number of them that resulted in maximum efficiency when loading them into the washing machine. Her cheeks redden and she drops the large pile on the floor in front of the machine and tries hard to remember. She was much too busy looking at everyone who was laughing at the state of their boss to listen. Metaphorically, she kicks herself and closes her eyes, trying hard to think back to what he said, “NOT TEN!” Miyako shouts from the room with the washing machine in it, her fingers wrapping around one cloth as a time before individually dropping them into the machine. As she drops the tenth, she inhales and shouts out again, “TWELVE TOO MUCH, BREAK THE MACHINE!”

And so she leaves the number at eleven and turns towards the shelf that holds the neatly folded clean table cloths and grabs a stack of eleven of them, knowing that she will need at least that many to start covering all of the barren tables. She carries the stack to the dining area and sets them on one of the tables she’s already cleared, beginning on the others first. Miyako has watched her grandmother pleat table cloths before and utilizes this knowledge as if it’s a jutsu, almost flawlessly covering the tables, all of the edges falling at an even length from the table top. She does this 10 more times until she’s all finished with that stack and returns to the laundry room to repeat the process over again.

By about the third round of this process, she’s ready to change the laundry, tossing the wet though now clean table cloths into the dryer and reloading the washing machine with exactly eleven more cloths, not a single one more or a single one less. Miyako feels like this is a very rudimentary job and this is also where she realizes that she absolutely never wants to be a housewife.

If the man were to come from the kitchen, he would notice that the table cloths have been very nicely taken care of, now crisply white and pleated just like they were before the shop even opened. Some of the other employees shoot crooked glares at Miyako, jealous that they can’t do as well as some little girl. Though the ones that are jealous simply don’t understand shinobi and the wonderful things they can achieve... Like doing laundry.

[1740/2000]

 

[Tatsuo]

While some of the waiters were annoyed with Miyako it was mostly because they were going to have to share a cut of their tips with the girl, but she did a decent job so no one minded all that much. However someone was watching her once again and it wasn't any of the waiters. As she made her way back to the washing machine and opened the lid, the owner popped out wearing a snorkle and mask, a tablecloth was in his hand and he began to shake his head. "This.. is twelve.. not eleven.." unfortunately for Miyako she hadn't checked too carefully and one of the tablecloths had gotten wrapped in another, making it seem like there was only eleven. "YOU COULD BREAK MACHINE, LUCKILY I WAS IN HERE OR THE MACHINE--" he took off his snorkle, making his yells much less muffled. "OR THE MACHINE WOULD'VE BROKE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW EXPENSIVE MACHINE IS? MACHINE COST HALF OF BUSINESS, IF I HAVE TO FIX MACHINE THAT IS TIME NOT MAKING FOOD, AND TIME NOT MAKING FOOD IS NOT TIME MAKING MONEY." the man face palmed before shaking his head. "I am sorry. You are just kid, I hold you to much too high standard. Thank you for helping."

Just as he was angry moments ago, he felt sincere and open about his apology. While it may have scared Miyako and give her further certainty that this man had a screw or two loose, he did seem to care about people in the village, at least a little bit. "What is your name, girl? When I give report to the academy I wish to say you were #1 worker here." He said with a huge smile, "I appreciate help, probably would have fail, if you weren't here." he extended his hand to Miyako, still wet and covered in detergent from hiding out in the washing machine. "I am Mr. Kenutsu, fruit specialist."

 

[Tomomi Chijimatsu]

As Miyako opens the machine and the man now known as Mr. Kenutsu jumps out, she jumps back in surprise. She didn’t mean to add twelve table cloths to the machine and she’s a little upset that he’s angrily yelling at her, but as he apologizing she sighs now that everything is well. Her shoulders slouch slightly and she smiles now at his compliments, “Uchiha Miyako.” Is all she responds, looking over his soaked and soapy hand with a bit of disinterest before shaking it hesitantly.

“Thank you, and very nice to meet you Mr. Kenutsu.” The smile she’d offer now is sincere and actually somewhat warm. She’s glad that she got to meet this man and work with him. Miyako first thought that this mission was simply a joke from the academy and her loss in the tournament was the reason that she was sent to bus for a somewhat dingy ramen shop.

Miyako offers a bow to the man, her eyes closing as she does so and her hands comes together beneath her chin. Even though this was quite the experience, Miyako is glad that it’s over and that she doesn’t have to touch any more dirty dishes or deal with any more hangry customers that for some reason want to keep their dirty dishes at their table. She also knows now that owning a restaurant is not something that she wants to do when she retires. Too much goes on in the smallest amount of time and the entire establishment is always dirty no matter how many times you clean it.

[2004/2000]

[Mission Completed!]