Author's Note: Well, here it is, another chapter of this little story. Wow, we're in double digits in terms of chapters now…fantastic! Now, please leave a review after reading this. Your reviews contribute to the karmic drive that fuels this story. Funding for "Hinata and the Chocolate Factory" is provided by a grant from "The Cheat" and made possible by reviews from "Viewers Like You". Thank you.
14: Masaru and the Puppets
Wonka-san rushed on down the corridor. The Puppet Room, it said on the next door they come to. The door was covered in a variety of safety and warning stickers printed in a variety of languages. A few that Hinata could read said "Danger! Enter at your own risk!" and "Chakra in use! Warning!"
"All right," said Wonka-san, "stop here for a moment and catch your breath, and take a peek through the glass panel of this door. But don't go in! Whatever you do, don't go into The Puppet Room. If you do, you might disturb the delicate processes!"
Everyone crowded around the door.
"Oh look, Naruto-kun, look!" cried Hinata.
"They're puppets!" shouted Masaru Kawasaki.
Souya Ikari remained silent as the others gaped and gasped.
It was an amazing sight. Dozens of lanky, wooden carved puppets worked about in the room. They looked elegant but somewhat frightening, their facial features lifeless. Each of the puppets stood about three two four feet high. They carefully worked in a brightly lit room, gently carrying pots full of bubbling liquids and pouring chemicals from one test tube to another. The scene was similar to the Inventing Room, only with far less noise and excitement. In fact, as far as Hinata could tell, the room was absolutely silent.
"Oi, Wonka-san!" Naruto tugged on his sleeve, "I recognize those puppets! I knew a shinobi from the Sand that used puppets like that. He was in our Chuunin exam!"
"Ah yes!" cried Wonka-san, "I believe I know the boy you're talking about. I procured these puppets from a village elder in the Sunagakure village (Hidden Sand Village). They cost a terrible amount to create, but I was more than willing to extend a favour or two to the Kazekage in return"
"W-what kind of favours?" Hinata asked.
"Well," Wonka-san said happily as he brought a hand to his chin, "a lifetime supply of luminous lollies, a…lifetime supply of candy bars, hmmm…something about franchise rights…mostly candy for life though"
"How do they work?" Masaru asked impatiently, "Do they run on batteries? I don't see any strings or anything…" he stared through the glass, looking intently for some sign of how they worked.
"Oh, they're controlled by strings," Wonka-san began, "but not ordinary strings. Chakra strings are used. All of these puppets are led along by a series of strings made out of precisely controlled chakra. If you look up," Wonka-san pointed into the room towards the ceiling, "You'll see a small hole. Right above that is a workstation where I have an Oompa-Loompa puppeteer controlling all of the puppets. It takes an enormous amount of chakra control and concentration. The worker up there is one of the greatest and most skilled Oompa-Loompas living here" he finished proudly.
Hinata focused her eyes a bit, concentrating on the puppets. She felt blood rush through her temples as she activated the Byakugan. Suddenly, she was able to see the chakra running through the puppets. She could see the fine strings of glowing blue chakra running from each of their limbs up towards the ceiling. It was an amazing sight.
"But why are you using puppets here, Wonka-san?" Naruto asked, "Why not just Oompa-Loompas?"
"Because," replied Wonka-san, "The candies and formulas that I'm working on in this room are somewhat hazardous. This is where I test candies that could potentially harm people. It's far too dangerous a job to have my Oompa-Loompas trying out and working on things like exploding lollipops or acid sour jujubes. So, I have these puppets working on them so no one will be harmed".
The children continued to look through the glass, watching the amazing puppets perform their dangerous tests. One puppet had a box of what looked like taffy. It opened the wrapper of one piece, swaying in a puppet-like fashion, and then it took the taffy in its hands and stretched it. The taffy exploded in the puppets face! Covered in soot, the puppet swayed over to the box of taffy, picked it up, and threw it across the room where it fell down a hole right in the middle of the floor.
"See, unsafe products are tossed down that garbage chute in the middle of the room." Wonka-san said gleefully.
The children continued to watch the puppets test products, watching them approve some and discard others, sending them down the garbage chute.
"Oto-san!" Masaru said to his father, "I've just decided that I want a puppet! Get me one of those puppets!"
"Don't be foolish, Masaru-kun," said Kawasaki-san, "These belong to Wonka-san."
"I don't care about that!" shouted Masaru, "I want one! I've got nothing of the sort at home! None of my stupid old toys are this interesting! I want a puppet!"
"All right Masaru-kun," Kawasaki-san said soothingly. "Your father will get you a puppet just as soon as he possibly can."
"But I don't want any old puppet!" Masaru shouted, "I want one of those! One that moves with chakra strings!"
At this point, Kawasaki-san stepped forward. "Very well, Wonka," he said importantly, taking out a wallet full of money, "how much do you want for one of these crazy puppets? Money is no matter, name your price."
"Oh, they're not for sale," Wonka-san replied, "He can't have one!"
Kawasaki-san turned to his son, a sort of helpless look on his face.
"If you won't get me a puppet, I'll just have to go in and get one myself!" shouted Masaru.
"Don't!" said Wonka-san quickly, but he was too late. The boy had already thrown open the door and rushed in.
The moment he entered the room, several puppets stopped what they were doing and turned their heads and stared at him with their small, black, beady, lifeless eyes. Masaru had also stopped, and stared back at them. Then his gaze fell upon a short little puppet nearest to him at the end of a table. The puppet was still working, taking no notice of the intruding boy.
"All right," Masaru said, "I'll have you!"
He reached out his hands to grab the puppet around the middle…but as he did so…in that first split second when her hands started to go forward, there was a flash of sudden movement. The puppet he'd reached for swiveled around. It opened its rectangular puppet mouth and emitted a horrible screech, like the sound of a metal gate opening if it hasn't been oiled in decades. A dreadful squeal. Suddenly something shot out of the puppet's mouth, hitting Masaru squarely in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards.
"Oh…well that's new!" Wonka-san said excitedly. "I guess the puppets still have a few armaments that Chiyo-Baba forgot to uninstall…hmmm"
Wonka-san was correct. Many of the puppets turned from their workstations and swayed towards Masaru. They raised their arms towards him, their hands retracting into their wrists. Out of their wrists popped a variety of different looking tools and devices: some were equipped with knives, others with spinning saws that made a horrible buzzing noise. There was even one that had a small, yellow rubber thing that reminded Hinata of a rubber duck. All of these things certainly looked menacing to Masaru.
"O-Oto-san! Help me!" he cried as the puppets advanced on him. The party looked absolutely aghast at what they were witnessing through the glass of the door.
"Can't you do anything!" Hito Kawasaki pleaded to Wonka-san.
"Um…I dunno…probably not…" he said with a little shrug.
At that moment, almost all of the puppets had encircled Masaru as he lay on the ground. The moved forward and pinned him; three puppets grabbing his left arm, three puppets holding his right. His legs were held securely by about five lanky puppets with sharp, gnashing teeth. One puppet, the one Hinata suspected (and was right about) having a rubber duck for a hand, moved towards Masaru's head.
"Oh dear," Wonka-san cried, "It looks as if they're going to test the boy…"
"Test him!" Kawasaki-san cried. "What for!"
"Well, it's the puppet's job to find defective products" Wonka-san said. "If they deem your son defective…well…" he trailed off.
The one puppet leaned over and looked down at Masaru's terrified face. It raised its arm into the air and brought its hand down on Masaru's head with a satisfying squeak! It did this several times more, tapping the rubber duck against the boy's head, as if checking for something.
Finally the puppet stopped, and issued a low groan to his fellow puppets.
"Oh dear…" Wonka-san gasped "…I think he was defective after all"
The puppets turned and lifted Masaru off of the floor and hoisted his struggling body up. Masaru kicked and screamed as they carried him. "Oto-san! I want them to stop! Make them stop this instant! F-Father!"
All together, the puppets carried Masaru over to the garbage chute, and chucked him in! Everyone heard a scream trail after him, slowly growing quieter as he descended. With that, the puppets turned around and headed back to their duties.
"M-Masaru-kun!" the boy's father yelled after him. He quickly turned to Wonka-san. "Wonka-san, where does that chute lead? Where'd my son go?"
"That chute?" Wonka-san asked, pointing to the hole in the ground. "That chute, my dear man, leads down to the garbage pit, which in turn, leads to the incinerator"
"The incinerator!" Kawasaki-san screamed. "You'll roast my son alive!"
"No good sir, I'd never dream of it!" Wonka-san said reproachfully. "The incinerator shouldn't be lit, as it is only lit every Thursday"
"B-but today is T-Thursday!" cried Hinata.
"Oh…" Wonka-san said slowly, "well, in that case, I'm sure there's a chance they might not have lit it today. There might be a build up of garbage in that chute. If that's the case, I'm sure you could just reach down and pull your son out!"
Kawasaki-san nodded. He looked hesitantly towards the door, finally pushing it open. He slowly entered the room, looking back and forth towards the puppets and the garbage chute he had lost his son in. Hinata watched as he walked at a snail's pace towards the chute. As he approached the chute a small puppet turned from what it was doing and snuck up behind him.
"Oi! K-Kawasaki-san! Behind you!" Hinata called to him, banging on the glass of the door. But the man didn't hear her, and leaned over the chute to find his son.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion to Hinata. The puppet crept up to Kawasaki-san and, with the tiniest little nudge, sent him falling down the chute as well!
Hinata gasped as she watched him fall. The puppet, its task completed, turned again back to its work.
Suddenly, something caught Hinata's eye from above. She saw a circular portion of the ceiling begin to descend. It was lowered into the room by long metal poles. On the other side of the section sat a small person with an extremely long beard. The little man was postured in a very Buddhist-like way. Hinata could see him flicking his fingers every now and then.
"Ah, the master of chakra control I told you children about" Wonka-san said beaming, "this Oompa-Loompa is the puppeteer to all of those puppets! Just imagine the amount of concentration something like that would take! Oooh, everyone, look! It seems like he's doing something to the puppets!"
Wonka-san was right. The puppeteer brought his hands up and began wriggle them about. As he did, each of the puppets began to sway and move on their strings. They did a sort of lopsided jig as the Oompa-Loompa began to sing:
"Masaru-kun, the little brute,
Has just gone down the garbage chute,
And there he'll meet as he descends,
A rather different set of friends.
Of all the things been thrown away,
Like ruined taffy just today,
Or some toffee nobody could chew,
Some lollies that would make you spew,
And lots of other things as well,
Each with a rather horrid smell.
But now, my dears, we think you might,
Be wondering–is it really right
That every single bit of blame,
And all the scolding and the shame
Should fall upon this beastly child,
A person rotten and defiled,
For though he's spoiled, and dreadfully so,
A boy can't spoil himself, you know.
Who spoiled him, then? Ah, who indeed?
Who pandered to his every need?
Who turned him into such a brat?
Who are the culprits? Who did that?
Alas! You needen't look so far
To find out who these sinners are.
They are (and this is very sad)
His loving parent, dear old DAD.
And that is why we're glad he fell
Into the garbage chute as well."
"My goodness!" Wonka-san said jovially, "Wasn't that a good song? Very well thought out indeed. Improvisation is a parlor trick. Have I said that already? I can't quite remember…"
At that moment, an Oompa-Loompa walked up to Wonka-san and tugged on his pant leg. He bent over and let the little man whisper in his ear.
"Oh good!" he smiled and turned to the party, "I've just been informed that the incinerator is broken, and that there's about a weeks worth of garbage to break those two's fall. Isn't that wonderful? Yay!" he clapped his gloved hands together.
"S-so they'll be alright?" Hinata asked, worried.
"My dear, I'm sure they'll be fine…yeah, pretty sure," he smiled, "C'mon, we've wasted so much time as it is. Let's keep on trucking! Keep on tranglin', or whatever it is you kids say today!"