11: Down the Chocolate River to the Inventing Room
"Off we go!" cried Wonka-san. "Hurry up, everybody! Follow me to the next room! We'll have to take the next part of the journey by boat! Ooh, here she comes now! Look!"
A steamy mist was rising up now from the great warm chocolate river, and out of the mist there suddenly appeared a most fantastic light brown boat. It was a large open rowing boat with a tall front and a tall back (Like a Viking ship), and it glistened a rich, golden brown colour, almost like caramel. There were many oars on either side of it, and as it came closer the children noticed that the oars were being pulled by masses of Oompa-Loompas, all of their head protectors glinting.
"This is my private yacht!" said Wonka-san, beaming with pleasure. "It's actually only on loan to me. I procured it from a wonderful boat builder in the Wave country. It's constructed entirely out of the country's national candy!" he finished with a titter.
"Salt water taffy!" Naruto cried out.
Wonka-san stared at the boy, his eyes sparkling, "Precisely! Boy, for being so short, you've certainly got potential! Not like the rest of the shorties here!"
"We can't help that we're short!" Masaru Kawasaki said angrily, "We're kids!"
"Well that's no excuse…I was never short as a child! I distinctly recall wearing a very tall hat that none of you would be able to reach with your tiny little arms! Now, all aboard!" Wonka-san said as the boat pulled up to the riverbank. One after another the children climbed aboard. Naruto and Hinata went to the back of the boat and sat down.
"I-Isn't this…marvelous, Naruto-kun?" Hinata said, her face turning red as the two sat close to each other. Naruto turned to her and nodded, a big grin on his face.
Suddenly, Wonka-san, who was sitting on Hinata's other side, reached down to the bottom of the boat and pulled out a large mug, dipped it into the river, filled it with chocolate, and handed it to Hinata. "Drink this," he said. "It'll do you good! You look starved to death!"
Then Wonka-san filled a second mug and handed it to Naruto. "You too," he said, "you look like you could use a bit as well. What's the matter? Aren't they feeding you two right in Konoha? You look like a skeleton, little girl!"
"T-t-there hasn't been much to eat…" Hinata mumbled. She put the mug to her lips, and as the rich warm creamy chocolate ran down her throat into her empty tummy, her whole body from head to toe began to tingle with pleasure, and a feeling of intense happiness spread over her.
"You like?" asked Wonka-san.
"Oh, it's wonderful!" Hinata cried.
"The creamiest loveliest chocolate I've ever tasted!" Naruto said licking his lips, his face becoming rosy.
"That's because it's mixed by waterfall!" Wonka-san said proudly. He turned to the other children. "The waterfall is most important! It mixes my chocolate, churns it up, and makes it light and frothy! In fact, no other factory in the world…"
"You said that already!" Souya Ikari interrupted.
A look of hesitation appeared on Wonka-san's face. "Just thought I'd wanna get that point home to you…" he mumbled.
The boat sped on down the river. The boat began to enter a dark tunnel. "Full speed ahead!" Wonka-san cried to the Oompa-Loompas, who rowed even faster, sending them speeding down the pitch-black tunnel.
"How can they see where they're going!" shrieked Tomoe Bulnose in the darkness.
"There's no knowing where they're going!" cried Wonka-san, hooting with laughter. He began to hum a little tune in the darkness, just audible enough for all of the children to hear.
"There's no earthly way of knowing… Which direction they are going…Not a speck of light is showing,
So the danger must be growing,
For the rowers keep on rowing,
Will the winds of change be blowing?
Are the fires of hell be showing
Any signs that they are slowing!
"He's gone crazy!" shouted Tomoe's mother, aghast, and the others joined in a chorus of frightened shouting in the darkness. "He's crazy!" they shouted.
"He's nutty!"
"He's mental!"
"He's batty!"
"He's wacky!"
"He's insane!"
"He's loony!"
"Urusei! He is NOT!" screamed Hinata, which surprised everyone since Hinata had been so quiet over the course of the tour.
"Switch on the lights! We're here!" shouted Wonka-san. And suddenly, on came the lights and the whole tunnel was brilliantly lit up, and Hinata could see that the tunnel was actually an enormous pipe! The Oompa-Loompa's furious pace was slowing, the boat was coming to a stop. The children could see a large, round steel door coming up to the left of them.
"Stop the boat! This is where we get off!" Wonka-san cried raising his hands into the air. The Oompa-Loompas guided the boat alongside the steel door. On the door it said, Inventing Room! Private! Keep Out! Wonka-san took a key from his pocket, leaned over the side of the boat, and put the key in the keyhole.
"This is the most important room in the entire factory!" he said. "All of my most secret new inventions are cooking and simmering in here! All those other rotten, no good, spying and swindling candy makers would give up an arm and a leg to be allowed inside here for just three minutes! So would that despicable Urami H'coro and his like!" he said with a shudder. Hinata's eyes lit up at the mention of the man she had met on the street the other night. "But now, listen to me! I want no messing about when you go in! You can have all the fun you want, just so long as you don't touch, taste, or muck about with anything in this room! Is that agreed?"
"Yes, yes!" the children cried. "We won't touch a thing!"
"Up to now," Wonka-san said, "nobody else, not even an Oompa-Loompa, has ever been allowed in here!" he opened the door and stepped out of the boat into the room. The four children and their guests all scrambled after him.
Hinata Hyuuga started around the gigantic room in which she now found herself. The place was like an enormous laboratory! All around her steel pots were boiling and bubbling on huge stoves, and kettles were hissing and pans were sizzling, and strange silver machines were clanking and spluttering, and there were pipes running all over the ceiling and walls, and the whole place was filled with smoke and steam and delicious rich smells.
Wonka-san himself had suddenly become even more excited than usual, and anyone could see that this was the room that he loved most of all. He was hopping about among the saucepans and test tubes and machines like a child among birthday presents.
"Oi, Wonka-san!" Masaru Kawasaki yelled from across the room. He was rapping on a large glass tub that was filled with clear liquid. "What's this?" he asked.
Wonka-san ran up to the tub, which was at least the size of a small swimming pool, and beamed proudly. He pointed into the tub for all the children to see. At the bottom there were several green little spheres about the size of a marble. Wonka-san fished on of them out with his purple rubber fingers.
"Everlasting Gobstoppers!" he cried proudly. "They're completely new! It's been occurring to me that a good percentage of the world's children live in shinobi villages, where they're allowed very little pocket money and even less candy. So, I invented these! You can suck on an Everlasting Gobstopper for as long as you want and it won't ever get any smaller! Never ever ever!"
"It's like gum!" said Tomoe Bulnose.
"Ah, no!" Wonka-san said. "Gum is for chewing. If you tried to chew one of these little guys, you'd break all of your little teeth right off! But they taste terrific! They change colour once a week and they never get any smaller!
"Now over here," Wonka-san went on, skipping excitedly across the room to the opposite wall, "over here I'm inventing a brand new line of toffees!" He reached into a machine and pulled out a little cube of light brown toffee.
"Hair toffee! Now, if you suck down one of these little boogers, in exactly half an hour a brand new crop of hair will start growing right out of your little noggin! And a moustache! And a beard!" he cried joyfully, as if there was no thing greater.
"Who would ever want a beard!" Souya Ikari called out.
Wonka-san pondered for a second or two, "Well…beatniks for one, motorbike riders I would suppose, sea captains, I've heard that the five Kages are quite fond of beards, y'know, all of those hip groovy cats out there!" he said finally.
"Now," he continued, "over here, if you'd step this way, I will show you something that I am terrifically proud of. Oh, do be careful! Don't knock anything over! Stand back!"
Wonka-san led them over to a gigantic machine that stood in the very center of the Inventing Room. It was a mountain of gleaming metal that towered high above the children and their guests. Out of the very top there sprouted hundreds and hundreds of tiny glass tubes, and the glass tubes all curled downwards and came together in a bunch and hung suspended over an enormous round tub as big as a bath. Hinata had never seen so much metal and glass bunched together like that in her entire life!
"Here we go! Magic time!" cried Wonka-san. He then turned his back to group as he hunched over part of the machine. Hinata could just see that he was working his hands furiously, almost as if he was forming hand seals. Finally, there was a loud Clang and Hinata saw that he'd brought his hands down on the machine's surface. A second later, a mighty rumbling noise came from inside it, and the whole machine started to shake most frighteningly. Steam began hissing out all over, and then suddenly the watchers noticed that runny stuff was pouring down the insides of all of the many little glass tubes and squirting into the great tub below. The rumbling sound disappeared and a whizzing noise took its place. The machine began to shake more and more violently now. Some of the guests stepped back, fearing it would explode. But Wonka-san just stood right next to it, grinning expectantly.
"Watch!" he cried.
The machine suddenly ceased its rumbling and shaking and whizzing. It issued forth a little ping and a small slot at the front of the machine slid out. The slot was quite small, only about an inch wide. Out of the slot popped something so small and thin and grey that everyone thought it must be a mistake. The thing looked like a tiny strip of grey cardboard.
"That's it!" Masaru Kawasaki said sarcastically.
"Um, do you even know what it is?" Wonka-san asked.
"It's gum!" said Tomoe Bulnose enthusiastically.
"Wrong!" Wonka-san cried. "It's the most amazing and fabulous and sensational gum in the whole world!"