Kitchen of Duty: Soup Stall [M]

[Kenji 忍]

The various stalls and shops that lined the street were an unfamiliar sight for Kenji. He was much more accustomed to the seemingly barren residential district that he called home. However, he could tell how an up and coming businessman would be intrigued by the thriving amount of consumers that bustled about. Pushing his way through the crowded street, Kenji slowly made his way to the soup stall that he had been sent to help. It had a modest design, only able to sit four at a time, but also looked out of place in between two booming shops. Despite this though, the soup stall had a surprisingly good growth rate with profitability that climbed at a steady pace. This was no doubt due to business' mushroom soup that had become revered amongst the local villagers and fueled the desire to dine there.

A good sized crowd of customers already surrounded the shop, blocking his entrance from the front. Kenji was already annoyed by the first horde of stranger he had the displeasure of being pressed up against. So he made an effort to go around the crowd and to the side of the stall where a staff-only door led into the kitchen. Inside the hut, he would immediately be welcomed by the intense heat that radiated from the cooking appliances. From which stood a large man wearing a stained apron hovering over a steaming pot. He looked up to Kenji, most likely surprised by the sudden presence of some stranger in his kitchen. “Hello sir, my name is Kenji. I am here to assist you for the day.” Kenji would say, keeping his tone polite and even giving a slight bow.

The store owner raised an eyebrow and looked at Kenji up and down. “Never worked in a kitchen have you, boy? No, course not. You wouldn't be wearin' such frilly clothing if you had.” he replied in a slow and raspy voice. It was true, he had not taken into consideration the proper attire for work such as this and was now left to the mercy of his own folly. “My apologies, sir. I will make amends”. Kenji would say as he began discarding the upper portion of his clothing until he was left with nothing but a plain shirt and an apron covering his torso. “You'll have to do I suppose. Couldn't be any worse then the lazy bastard who decided to take a day off are our busiest day.” The store owner would then detail specifics of his duties. Kenji was to serve the food, clean the dishes, and do any other assignments that were within the bounds of his mission.

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RANK: D
DESCRIPTION: Upon the busy market street of Kusagakure stands a stall that has been there for as long as people can remember - even before the village was destroyed during the first and second shinobi wars. A rather small shop, it's a small hut, capable of seating four people at the most. Run diligently by the various generations of the Dekiboshi family, despite the size of the stall it's renown for the tasty mushroom soup that its very temperamental matriarch, known simply as Obachan to those who visit it, creates each and every day. However, with the younger generation showing no interest in the family business and with said business booming, she require some help around to prepare the soup that the village consumes.
OBJECTIVE: Help out at the stall and help out with creating the soup and with serving its customers! Follow Obachan's orders correctly, or she may hit you!
PAY: 25 EXP and 500 Ryo.[/ul][/spoiler][/ul][/blockquote][/blockquote][/div][/font][/font]

[Kenji 忍]

Kenji was already feeling the stress of working in a busy kitchen. While the work was simple, the stall owner had an established pace that the inexperienced shinobi had difficulty getting used to. It seemed whenever he was starting on one task he needed to move on to the next. And along with the owner's continuous scolding, he was overwhelmed with frustration. 'No wonder your usual workers don't want to come in' Kenji thought to himself. Overall they had served about twenty customers in the first two hours. Yet there seemed to be no end to them, nor did the crowd outside seem to lose any numbers. When one seat became empty it would be immediately filled with the next hungry and impatient citizen.

Luckily, an order for delivery was made just as Kenji was nearing his breaking point. Just as he was about to depart, the store owner would say “This isn't a break, boy. You go there and get back, you hear me?” as if he had read his mind. Even so, he was pleased to at least get out of the steaming kitchen and into the fresh air. At a good speed he made his way towards the delivery's location. It was two blocks away from the street the stall was on, so he couldn't be gone to long or the store owner would grow suspicious. Arriving at the home of the customer, Kenji would knock on the door and wait patiently. It would take about three minutes for someone to open and take their food. Although, he wouldn't have minded if they took longer.

His walk back seemed to blur past and he found himself in the kitchen once again. Despite the fact that he had not been gone for long, dishes were stacked high just waiting for him. As expected the remarked on his lack of urgency and barked the same orders he had already heard repeatedly the entire day. It would take Kenji thirty minutes to get back on track and by then he had tuned out nearly everybody and everything. He desperately wanted to finish the mission and get as far away from the soup stall as he could. But for now he just had to stick to his task and try and let the time pass as quickly as possible.

[Kenji 忍]

Another hour would pass and the sky would begin to darken. Unfortunately, as the time passed he was met with even more scolding coming from the owner. However, this was the last straw for Kenji. “How can someone like you even get workers or even own a business as renowned as this one?” He would shout at the man to the shock of four customers that sat eating. There would be a short and silent pause in the soup stall before the man started chuckling and then laughing at Kenji. “You think I'm the owner here, boy? You got it all wrong. I may be cooking, but these aren't my recipes.” Suddenly, the door that Kenji had used to get into the stall burst open and a woman that stood with a intimidating stature stood in it's place. She would walk in an take a moment to observe the kitchen with a expression of disgust. “What is this, a prison cafeteria?” she would say with a booming voice.

It had turned out that the cook he had been working with was only in charge of the stall during the beginning of the day. The real attraction came when the real owner, the woman he now knew as Obachan Dekiboshi, took over the cooking. She made the past cook seem like a pleasant dream with not only her scolding, but her physical abuse as well. In fact, he had already received more bruises in the last hour then the entirety of his last mission. There was no way he'd even think of shouting at this woman as he did the last cook at the risk of his own life. Kenji also noticed a sudden change in the type of customers they were beginning to serve. These people wore clothes with noble designs made out of the most expensive fabrics and weren't afraid to be as obnoxious as they could to Kenji. However, he managed to survive by keeping his head low and doing nothing more than what he was told.

The day would begin to grow old as the influx of customers started to slow. The more Kenji thought about the days past events, it had seemed the first cook had prepared him for the woman. He even considered himself lucky that he only had to work with Obachan near the stall's closing hours. One hour later and the last costumer would leave the stall. It would take the combined work of Kenji and Obachan to finish cleaning the kitchen and its utilities. “Alright your done here, kid.” He would let out a quick sigh of relief as he made his way out of the stall. “It was a pleasure working with, mam.” Kenji replied to her with a sarcastic tone. However, he would pay for being disrespectful to the woman with a painful knot on the back of his head.

[Exit]