9: Willy Wonka's 'Chocolate Room'

As they entered, they noticed they were walking into an enormous corridor with polished steel walls and an extremely high ceiling. The corridor seemed to stretch out forever. There was a red carpet running all the way down it that it seemed to disappear near the end. The carpet was lined with brass poles with thick velvet ropes, like in a cinema waiting line.

"Okay, just drop your coats anywhere or toss them any-dang-way!" Wonka-san said as he toke off his velvet coat and dropped it beside himself, then removed his glasses and threw them against a far wall so hard that they shattered. Everyone took off their coats (except Hinata and Naruto, who weren't wearing any) and placed them much more politely on the brass poles.

"Okay little children, step up and show me your golden tickets so that I may allow you to enter my factory and not kick you out on your dirty old behinds" he said with a childish grin. One by one, the children formed a line, their golden tickets in their hands. The big fat girl stepped up first.

"I'm Yoriko Glupu," she said as she shoved a large chunk of a candy bar in her mouth "I love your chocolate!"

"I can see that! May I also say that you're marvelously rotund! I'm so happy that you've made such a big investment into my humble little company," Wonka said as he patted her enormous belly.

"My name," said the next child to go forward, "Is Masaru Kawasaki."

"My dear Masaru-kun! Y'know, I once that that a Masaru was a wild cat that lived on the island of Iromote and frequently got hit by passing cars! I guess I must be mistaken. Heheheheh" Wonka giggled, letting the boy pass with his father.

Tomoe Bulnose ran up and hugged Wonka-san around the middle. He jumped and recoiled from her touch. "I'm Tomoe Bulnose!" she said matter of factly.

"…I don't care…" Wonka said at last, the repulsion from his face leaving as the girl walked past. He then turned to face the next child, who was guestless.

"You…you're Souya Ikari," he said cheekily, "You're the little devil who figured out a ninjutsu that could find my golden tickets!"

Souya looked at Wonka-san with contempt. "It was quite simple. Even a novice could have discovered it," he said coldly.

"I'm sorry, you really shouldn't mumble. I'm a trifle deaf in my left ear…on you go!" he said, motioning for Souya to keep walking. He then approached the two remaining people. "You," he said with a big grin, as he looked at Hinata "You're just lucky to be here, aren't you!" He began to pump Hinata's hand vigorously, "How are you? You look a bit thin. Still, overjoyed to see you! Enthralled, captivated, enraptured, enchanted! And this must be your guest!" he looked to Naruto, "My, you're a tad short! Ah, you're both genins from Konoha! I can see your forehead protectors! Well, simply delighted to have you over!" he finally finished. He then rushed forward and continued to lead the group down the corridor.

"It's so warm in here" Naruto said. Hinata nodded and said, "It smells fantastic!" she took a big whiff of the air, which smelled of roasting coffee and burnt sugar and melted chocolate.

"I have to keep my factory warm for my workers. They're used to an extremely hot climate. They can't stand the cold!" Wonka-san added as they continued on. Hinata suddenly remembered Kakashi telling her about the mystery of the workers.

"But who are these workers?" she asked.

"All in good time…" Wonka-san said as they walked. "We've so much to see and so little lint in our pockets…I mean time!"

It seemed strange to Hinata, but she felt as if the corridor around her was getting smaller, almost as if the ceiling was on a slant. She looked to the others and discovered she wasn't the only one who thought this. They all looked around as the corridor became smaller and smaller. Soon, they were all cramped and squeezed into a tiny little exit. The door stood only a few centimeters off of the ground. "Why the heck is the door so small!" Masaru yelled.

"Well, that's to keep all the great big chocolaty flavour inside, heheh!" Wonka-san laughed. He bent over and turned a little key into the door. Then, the entire back of the corridor opened like a door to reveal an enormous room!

"This is an ultra important room!" Wonka-san said, putting the key back in his pocket. "This is the nerve center of the whole factory, the heart of the whole business! And so beautiful! I insist upon my rooms being beautiful! I can't abide ugliness, oh no!"

They were looking down upon a lovely valley. There were green meadows on either side of the valley, and along the bottom of it there flowed a great brown river. There was also a tremendous waterfall halfway along the river-a steep cliff over which the water curled and rolled in a solid sheet, and then went crashing down into a boiling, churning whirlpool of froth and spray. Graceful trees and bushes were growing along the riverbanks; weeping willows and alders and other trees with multicoloured blossoms of flowers and fruit. In the meadows there were thousands of buttercups.

"Don't get over excited children," Wonka said in a monotone "Don't lose your heads."

"That water down there is filthy! It's so brown from pollution!" Hito Kawasaki said disgustedly. Wonka-san laughed.

"No, you silly, silly man. It's so brown from chocolate!" he said, "Every drop of this river is hot, melted chocolate which I use in my factory. The waterfall is most essential: it mixes my chocolate, churning it up, making it light and frothy! I'm the only chocolateer in the world to mix his chocolate by waterfall…but I suppose it's not that special" he said, sighing at the end.

All of the people were bewildered and dazzled by the sight of the river. Hinata piped up, "Wonka-san, it is something special!"

"I know," he said with a chuckle, "I was just foolin' with ya'. See those pipes over there? They suck up my chocolate and carry it right to rooms all over my factory! Quite an invention, those pipes. Oooh, be sure to look at my trees and my bushes. Aren't they spectacular? Delicious too…" he looked at the children's puzzled faces from his last remark.

"Didn't I tell you?" Wonka-san continued, "Everything in this room is edible, meaning you can eat anything in this room! Try some of my grass, it's delectable. Made from a new kind of soft, minty sugar I've invented. Go ahead, try a blade!"

Automatically, everybody bent down and picked one blade of the grass, everyone except Yoriko Glupu, who took a large handful. Before Tomoe Bulnose tasted her blade, she took out her record breaking piece of gum and stuck it behind her ear.

"Isn't it wonderful!" whispered Hinata to Naruto, "Hasn't it got a wonderful taste, N-Naruto-kun?"

"It's fantastic! Nothing like anything I've ever tasted. I could eat a whole field!" Naruto said, grinning with delight.

"Try a buttercup," cried Wonka-san, "they're even nicer! In fact, go ahead! Enjoy yourselves! Go, go!" he began to shoo them away, motioning for them to look around. The children grabbed their guests and headed off to discover what other wonderful and eatable things were around to see and eat.

Tomoe Bulnose and Masaru Kawasaki ran over to a large tree that seemed to be growing candied apples. Tomoe ran up and picked one just as Masaru was; she reached for the one he was about to pick. "Hey, that one's mine!" he shouted.

Tomoe took out her gum and put it behind her ear. "I don't see your name on it" she said as she took a large bite. Masaru's face became quite red. He pouted and turned his nose up at the girl as she ate the apple. He picked another one nearby.

"Hmph…that one was a peasant's fruit anyway. This one on the other hand, looks like it's fit for someone of my status," he said smugly as he took a bite.

"That one's got dirt on it" Tomoe said, pointing. Masaru quickly dropped the apple, to which Tomoe let out a peal of laughter.

"That wasn't funny…" Masaru said as he turned to look for the group, "Oto-san! I want a candied fruit tree just like this one!" he shouted as he stormed off.

Yoriko Glupu waddled along the valley, shoving whatever she could into her mouth. Her cheeks were smeared with chocolate and cream. Anything the girl saw in her little piggy eyes, she shoved into her open maw. Nothing was spared: toadstools filled with whipped cream, stripped bark from trees made of licorice, fistfuls of the minty sugar grass. Yoriko stuffed herself to the point of bursting. Her eyes wide, she steered herself towards the chocolate river…

"Sugoi! Hinata, this place is awesome!" Naruto said as he strolled along the valley with her. The two walked along looking at all the wondrous things there was to try. "Hinata-chan, I really want to thank you for inviting me. It really means a lot to me" Naruto smiled. Hinata blushed and shook her head, saying it was no problem. The two stopped as they saw of the children in the distance, smashing something onto the ground.

"Who's that kid? What the heck is he doing?" Naruto asked.

"S-Souya Ikari, I think they said his name was," said Hinata as they watched him stomp on some of the buttercups. "It doesn't look like he's very happy to be here…" she said quietly.

"He's a genin like us, isn't he?" Naruto said, watching him from a distance, "looks kinda like a jerk to me…c'mon, let's find Wonka-san again"

All of the children's venturing was cut short by a scream from Bulnose-san. She was pointing frantically to the other side of the river. "Look! Look over there!" she screamed. "What is it? He's moving! He's walking! It's a little man! Down there below the waterfall!"

Everybody stopped picking buttercups and candied apples and grass and started staring across the river.

"She's right, Naruto-kun!" cried Hinata. "I-I-it's a little person! Can you see him?"

"I see him, Hinata-chan!" said Naruto excitedly.

And now everybody started shouting at once.

"There are two of them! Two little men!"

"No, I think one of them is a little woman! See, you can see her little hair, it's longer!"

"Hey, you're right! Wait, there's more of them!"

"A lot more!"

"What are they doing?"

"Where do they come from?"

"Who are they?"

Children and parents alike rushed down to the edge of the river to get a closer look.

"They're little people!"

"No higher than my knee!"

"What're they wearing? What're those things around their heads?"

"Baka! Those are head protectors! They're ninja!"

"That's impossible!"

The tiny people, they were no larger than medium sized dolls, had stopped what they were doing, and now they were staring back across the river at the visitors. One of them pointed towards the children, and then whispered something to a few others, and then they all burst into peals of laughter.

"D-demo, they can't be real people," Hinata said.

"Of course they're real people," Wonka-san answered, "They're Oompa-Loompas."