The warehouse was very spacious. It was about 4 stories, but Shira and Ryou wouldn't have been able to go to those top two stories. They were mostly for business customers from other countries and was a large, decorative display of all the works that were produced here. As a warehouse that specialized in housing, producing and reparing manufactured goods it had a lot of mechanized hardware, most of it dated, and had large shelves that had bins and bins of thousands of different useful materials. Each line on each shelf had all the materials needed to build a certain type of object, thus threads were one place, bolts and screws another place and things like cutters and blunt striking tools were another place. It was fairly large, open and had a few dozen worktables scattered about. The warehouse smelled like iron, sawdust, burning wood and searing metal all at the sametime. On the bottom floor was where most of a lot of the large machinery was and where a lot of the soldering, welding, hammering and brazing happened and above was where a lot of the safer and more meticulous work was done.
The place was pretty empty at the moment. It was a warehouse that did most of its operations in the middle of the night until the early morning. There was an occasional manager walking about preparing for tonight or some other staff that were apart of the day shift and were finishing up their daily inventory. None of them would have bat an eye at Shira or Ryou. Kids coming in here was commonplace and, so long as they weren't stealing, they wouldn't be ushered out. No. They'd earn their keep later in the day.
"You two must be Ryou-kun and Shira-chan?" A husky voice would ask.
A young man, early 20s, walked over to them. He had a pair of goggles around his neck, wore overalls, had on thick black oily boots and had a dirty white shirt on under. The boy had brown eyes and a deep orange tan from years of working close to fire. He smiled though and it was a kind smile. He had a tray in his hand that had three bowls on it.
"Looks like everything went alright then? Here-" He'd say, offering Ryou and Shira that tray. He'd place it on the table for them. It was a pretty large bowl with a rice porridge. It was a little sweet and it had thin cuts of fried fish inside it. "Don't know if you ate...So Kii is still out then?" He'd ask them, watching them a moment. They seemed a little tense. Then again, most people that worked in this warehouse were hardly in a good mood at the start of work, "Don't worry. We aren't going to work you too hard. We are just going to have you move some stuff and then you'll be free to go," Taiho, the man, would explain. Unless Ryou and Shira had forgotten, they weren't going to be able to stay here for free. In order to blend in they'd have to pose as workers and that entailed, well, working.
"Really lucky too. We recently had a large number of people transferred. We've been a bit backed up. But, it made me getting you guys in here all the easier." Cheerful, he would turn and point towards a stack of at least 300 bags. The bags were black, rubberized-cloth, and they were tied with wire. They were all stacked in a corner messily and taking a lot of space. Ryou and Shira didn't know this, but each of those bags weighed a hefty 25 lbs. "You just have to take those outside to the back and neatly palletize them. The are iron rods, so they are heavy. Take your time. You guys have all night to do it. Tell Kii I said Hi, alright?" Taiho would say, placing a quick friendly hand on Ryou's shoulder before he'd wave to Shira and start on his way to the other side of the warehouse. He had a lot more work to do that they did, but his was a lot less strenuous.
With that number of bags and their weight...It would take the two kids forever to get them all outside with just the two of them.
Likely, that wasn't going to make Shira feel any better about her current situation.
~Kii~
"So this is the Hokage Manor?" Kii said aloud, enjoying a Popsicle he bought from a stand. It was raspberry flavor. He'd never had a Popsicle like this before. Kii slurped the sweet syrup caught in his mouth down before biting off the last bit of the Popsicle. Once it was gone he licked the stick before pocketing it. He definitely didn't want litter and toss it on the ground.
Kii watched the large manor a moment. It was really big. Kii squinted as he looked at it, wondering if maybe he could see the Hokage in it. Looking from one window to the next his scaled down the large structure to its base where Kii looked for anything strange or out of the ordinary surrounding it. Really, it seemed so very ordinary. There were a few people taking pictures, others relaxing beside it, and many just going about their business around it. Even here, by one of the strongest ninja in all the world, everything was docile. Kii still couldn't see this place being the warmonger that the academy described it to be.
Kii decided he'd see if he could get some random information then.
Kii walked over to a man that worked nearest to the Hokage. It was a fairly large weapons shop. It really wasn't a huge wonder, Kii assumed the Konohagakure Academy was probably pretty close to the Hokage Manor. This was an ideal place to set up a shop and, looking at the assortment of weaponry, it was doing well. Kii found himself gawking a bit, even managing a sigh of surprise, as he took in some of the incredible weapons all around the shop. Ryou would have loved to see this shop. It was even larger than the shop Ryou's parents owned. Kii was sure he'd have to bring Ryou here sometime.
"Can I help you, little boy?" Turning around, Kii saw a middle aged man with glasses. The light reflected in his eyes making it too hard to actually see the color of his eyes. For some reason, Kii felt like the man was glowering at him.
"I-uh-Well, I'm new here and I saw this cool store and, I, well-" Kii purposely stammered and purposely adverted eye contact. He needed to act stupid, weak, and lost. That was the best way to get the information he needed. Too much confidence could leave an impression and that would be to his disadvantage, especially if this man became too curious. Looking like some nosy kid, which this man must get all the time, would enable Kii to slip and ask about the Hokage.
"Really? That is...So interesting," Condescending. Kii could tell this guy was really buying the act. It almost felt insulting to be spoken too as if you were some idiot child...Even if you were pretending to be one. "This is a shop for warrior and ninja. You are neither. I suggest you go find some toy store or some candy store to go drool in, little boy," He would say, motioning his hand to suggest Kii leave.
"Ah, yeah, I mean-you are right and stuff, but, I just...What was I trying to say? Oh yeah!" Kii said, trying not to smile but a slight grin found itself on his face. He was honestly laughing at himself at this point, "I really think ninja are cool. Do you ever have the Hokage come in here? I bet he's really amazing! Since I'm new I really wanted to see the Hokage, but, well, I think he's sleeping or something...?"
The man sighed, pushed up his glasses, and frowned, "I don't have time-" He started.
"Please! Please tell me about the Hokage and I'll leave! I really want to be like the Hokage. I'm a huge fan. I-I even think about going to become a ninja...Even though I'm already pretty old," Kii said, trying his hardest to look depressed, but he couldn't fully wipe the smile off is face and it just looked like a messy grin.
Sighing again, "The Hokage has been in here before. Actually, fairly recently," The man said, looking away in thought, "I'm assuming to be better prepared on training his students. Seeing as so many Genin failed, he has personally decided to train students. That man is truly an amazing man. Despite his busy schedule he still takes out the time for his students," Admiration seeped from the man. Kii was honestly surprised, this guy seemed like a total know-it-all jerk. Kii didn't think he could actually compliment someone.
"No way! He sounds so awesome! Maybe if I become a Genin he'd train me too?" Kii asked, but the man was already grabbing Kii's shoulders and aggressively throwing him out.
"I'm sure that is the case. Now go and find something to do outside my store," He'd say, literally kicking Kii out.
Kii's landed face first in the dirt. The shop owner would walk back inside with an annoyed grunt.
"Hmm..." Kii would pick himself up slowly, dusting his new clothes off. So the Hokage has students then. Maybe we can talk to the students to get more information out of them. If push comes to shove, we could abduct them and store them somewhere too and use them as leverage. Figuring out who his students are will get us the edge we need. Still though, this Hokage... Kii thought, starting to walk down the road in the opposite direction as the Hokage Manor.
"Doesn't seem so bad..." Kii would breathe, slowly losing any reason to really see this mission through. It was day one, but all he saw was good things. Hopefully, he'd get the information that he needed out of the students. But, first, Kii would take back the information he had with Ryou and Shira and compare it with what they found. Maybe they'd even be able to identify just who these students were.
