Sorry for posting so late! I went on holiday and then school started and I had to get adjusted again to the usual routine. I had Chapter 2 written quite a while ago, but I didn't want to post it unedited. I'm doing this at school right now! Can you believe it?
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in anyway and do not own Costco, its name or anything else that is under Costco. Though it would be nice to own Costco... Think of all the money!
Chapter 2- Costco hold upHe moved back to the girl who was staring in complete horror at her surroundings, her face beginning to turn an unnatural shade of white. "Maybe she'll be a snowy owl…" thought Iruka.
"No boxes left in this warehouse as far as I can see." Iruka reported, rather unnecessarily. It was obvious that the girl could see that already. All that came out of her mouth was a high pitched squeak.
"Umm, you think that we should inform the Hokage?" Iruka asked. The girl continued to stare, frozen, hundreds of thoughts flashing through her fast at light speed. Iruka blinked again, waiting patiently for her response. He did not get one.
"Helloooo?" Iruka said waving his hand vigorously in front of her face. She turned slowly to Iruka.
"They're going to kill me!" she squeaked, her voice unnaturally high.
"Who?" asked Iruka, clueless.
"Admin!" she squeaked back. Understanding struck Iruka for the first time.
"Ahhh, Village Administration." Why hadn't he picked up on that faster? Something must be eating away at his brain cells. He gazed around the warehouse once more. Again, all he saw were innocent dust bunnies floating past. His eyes narrowed. Maybe it hadn't just been the shelves that had helped
the weapon eating monsters; maybe the dust bunnies were in on it somehow. There they were, sitting there ever so innocently, rolling by on their invisible currents of air, tumbling around mindlessly. Maybe they weren't so innocent after all. He could just see them now, helping the monsters to
consume Konoha Village's hapless weapons, pushing the boxes along in to their huge yawning mouths. Iruka shuddered. Dust bunnies and shelves, everyone was in cahoots. He glanced back at the girl beside him. A thought struck him.
"Hey, why would Admin kill you?" The girl turned on him, her face rapidly turning red with anger. One would think the answer would have been obvious!
"Because," she growled in a strangled voice. "I'm supposed to be watching the merchandise in the warehouse and making sure that none of it gets stolen. And look what happened!" her voice rising to a shrill scream at the end. Iruka's eyes widened at her reaction to his innocent question.
"Well, I still think that we should see the Hokage, this is big business. Maybe he'll be too busy investigating to ask you closely about what you did."
"OUR WEAPONS GET STOLEN FROM RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE AND ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY IS SORRY?" the Hokage thundered. The girl whose name Iruka later found out to be Hitomi was cowering in a corner of the Hokage's office, the Hokage advancing on her, looking ready to turn her in to a pin cushion with his kunai.
"Hokage, sir, we don't even know if they got stolen, they could have just been…taken?" Iruka tried to amend, to no avail. Now the Hokage turned on him.
"TAKEN is the same as STOLEN!" Get that through your head!" Iruka let out a small yelp, dodging quickly as the Hokage dove at his throat. This was most uncharacteristic behavior for the Hokage. Why was he not remaining calm and calculating as usual? Why had he suddenly turned in to a rampaging monster?
"Look, Hokage sir, maybe someone just borrowed them?" Iruka reasoned, rather lamely. This comment served just to send the Hokage on an even fiercer rampage, now he started to hurl what hidden weapons he had on him at both Iruka and Hitomi. Several narrowly missed Iruka's head.
"Maybe there is some other reason sir." Iruka said dodging some well aimed kunai swiftly. "You really shouldn't go rampaging like that yet sir; you'll destroy your office." He twisted out of the way as several shiruken lodged themselves deeply in to the shelf of scrolls where Iruka had been just a second ago. Finally out of breath and out of weapons, but by no means out of rage, the Hokage stopped.
"What other clever reason could there be for the mass disappearance of ALL our weapons?" the Hokage asked, deceptively calm. He smoothed out his robes before seating himself leisurely on his office chair, ignoring the huge mess he had made. Scraps of scrolls floated gently to the ground, while splinters stuck out in jagged edges from what had once been elegant furniture. He glared daggers at Hitomi, now cowering in a different corner of the room.
"Sir, I swear, it's not my fault. I didn't check, no I mean I checked the weapons, but—they, no…" she trailed off lamely, realizing, for the third time, there was absolutely no way to save herself. If she had checked the weapons in the morning that meant that she hadn't been alert enough to sense the
thieves when they had been there. But if she had said that she hadn't checked them in the morning, then that meant that she hadn't been doing her job. Iruka and Hitomi had discussed all her options on the way to the Hokage's office. Twice, Hitomi had tried to run away after realizing that there was
no distinct possibility of her getting out of the situation unscathed. Iruka had informed his class – with a great joy deep in his heart—that they were to return to class and study from their textbooks, while he attended to more pressing matters. He would be back in a while. The Hokage looked at her, long and hard.
"Which one is it? Did you check them in the morning or did you not?" Hitomi bowed her head.
"I did not." The Hokage stared still longer at Hitomi.
"You do realize that means you weren't doing your job?" Hitomi responded with a small nod.
"So that means they could have been taken anytime last night or during this morning." He turned on Hitomi once again. "You did check them before you closed up last night, didn't you?" She nodded again, this time more vigorously, her voice lost to her.
"This will require deep and through investigation. I shall send my best ninja's on it. Thank- you for informing me of this pressing matter and sorry about throwing everything at you." The Hokage ended his short statement rather gruffly. Iruka glanced around the ruined office once more, eyeing the
number of weapons stuck in to the walls. "How much can the Hokage hold?" There was quite a number of kunai and shiruken embedded in to the walls. "Maybe that's why he has such big sleeves." Iruka repressed his urge to giggle childishly.
"You are now dismissed. I will call on you again if I need your services." Both ninja rose and bowed, Hitomi rather shakily. Then she turned and nearly fled the office, Iruka following, though slower then Hitomi. He dreaded going back to his class, those staring eyes and polite children. Iruka
was sure now, more then ever that he was going crazy because of them. In what ways though, he was not sure. He exited the Village Administration building and began to walk at a leisurely pace back to the school. No need to hurry. Absolutely no need. Not at all. Iruka began to whistle. Life would be good, until he got back in to class.
Once both ninja had exited the office, the Hokage sprang in to action. This would absolutely not do! The Ninja Competitions were within a week and the village representatives needed weapons to compete! He had to send out a call to bring all the ninja's who were currently on missions back.
They could not waste their weapons, whatever the cause. The Hokage knew that sounded a bit harsh, but he wasn't about to take another humiliating defeat to the Sand village again, for the fourth year. Every year that the Hokage had sent Leaf representatives, the Sand had taken them out in the
finals. It was simply humiliating and the Hokage would not stand for it. They needed their best weapons and ninjas out there! The Hokage had sent the competing ninja in to deep forest training, hoping that they would come back and claim Konoha village the title of Top Ninja Village. The
Hokage would simply not stand for another humiliating defeat. The first time the village had ended up as second, it had been alright. But when it happened four times in a row, the Hokage had imploded. He needed to be first, just to show those Sand goons up! And now the weapons were missing. He
had bought the weapons especially for the competitions. This particular batch of weapons that had been stolen had been from a very expensive brand that had had a major sale in Costco's weapons department. The Hokage had bought up every single one of the weapons, leaving nothing else for the
competition. He had tried to keep his purchase a secret, but alas, it seemed it had not been so. The stolen weapons were evidence that at least one other group of ninja had seen him make the purchase. Now he had to go back to Costco and buy a whole new batch of other, lesser weapons.
The Hokage sighed in frustration. He was a very busy and stressed out man right now. "This is going to cost a hell of a load of money!" That was why he needed to save all the weapons he could until the Ninja Competitions were over. They were going to have a major shortage in the
village until then. Either that or they would have to reuse the weapons. Kunai and shiruken became blunt after four times of use; the weapons had limited life to them. It was sad, but true. Weapons were not made to the standards that they had been made to fifty years ago. Most manufacturers
were looking to make money, not quality weapons. "Okay, I should go to Costco right now and see what they can give me." He wrapped his traveling cloak around and turned to leap out the window of his office. He paused suddenly, realizing that he should leave a note with his secretary, so
that anyone looking for him would know what was going on. Poking his head out of the office door, he hailed his secretary.
"Kari- san!" His rather rotund secretary glanced up from her work and looked at him inquiringly. "I'm going out to investigate our missing weapons. Just tell anyone looking for me that I'll be out for about three hours." His secretary nodded her affirmation and the Hokage popped back in to his
office. Now he was ready to leave. He sprang out his window and began to leap nimbly over the rooftops. He glanced down once at the street below him and saw Iruka at a fruit stall haggling with the vendor over the price of fruit that Iruka was holding. The Hokage frowned slightly. Didn't Iruka
have a job? And wasn't that teaching? Hokage shook his head. No time to be worrying about that right now. He had more pressing matters to attend to. Soon the Hokage had left the Village, leaping from tree branch to tree branch in the forest surrounding the Village. He made his way due south
until he came upon an overgrown sign that stated Costco was at a turn four miles east from his current location. The Hokage promptly turned left and began tree hopping east. Eventually he reached the said turn off and took it. He promptly dropped out of the forest after five minutes and
landed on spongy grass that cushioned his landing. He looked up and witnessed the greatness that was Costco. The great grey building reared up against the horizon, blocking the tree line that the Hokage was sure stood behind it. He made his way towards the store glancing around at the bustling
crowds of shoppers making their way in and out of the store. Most were common folk coming to shop, finding deals on things that they would only have dreamed of in their own isolated villages. The Hokage admitted that he could have purchased his weapons from the weapon smith that had lived in
the town two miles before the Costco turnoff. But the weapons that he could purchase at Costco were so much cheaper and he could purchase more and make profit by selling them to his villagers. It all worked out in the end for him. "Even though their weapons are less then prime." He muttered
under his breath. The Hokage wove his way through the milling crowds, making his way to the weapons service desk. Strangely, the area around the desk was very empty. The Hokage frowned, a sneaking suspicion starting to wiggle its way in to his mind. But he promptly squashed it, opting for the growing tree of hope in his mind that all was not lost.
"Good day, dear sir." The Hokage greeted the clerk at the desk as politely as possible. He could almost taste it, the feeling of victory and first place at the Ninja Competitions. "Would you happen to still have the three for one deal you had last week for the Happy Go Lucky Dog brand of weaponry?" The boy at the service desk blinked slowly at him.
"That deal's been sold out for nearly a week now, when some one who looked just like you bought the whole batch." Again the boy blinked, looking at him rather suspiciously. The Hokage fluttered his eye lashes and wrapped his traveling cloak half- consciously over his mouth, attempting to look like anyone other then himself.
"Well, that's too bad." The Hokage replied, raising the tone of his voice so it was unnaturally higher then usual. The service boy's eyebrows rose about a good inch on his face.
"Well, there is the buy five hundred get five hundred for free deal."
"Really?" The Hokage leapt forward, all attempts at a disguise discarded. The boy's eyebrows rose even higher on his forehead. "What brand?" the Hokage was now a happy dog, tail wagging high above his head.
"Ummm," the boy flipped through a recording scroll beside him. "The Rubber Ducky brand." He looked up inquiringly at the Hokage. A storm was brewing in the Hokage's head.
"T-t-t- the Rubber Ducky Brand?" the Hokage spluttered. "Is that all?" The boy continued to flip through the records. He looked back up at the Hokage.
"Anything else and we're all out. We'll be receiving a new shipment in about two weeks time if you want to come back then and get some."
"Fine, fine! I'll take the Rubber Ducky weapons!" The Hokage was distressed. The service desk boy disappeared in to the back, leaving the Hokage with his troubled thoughts. Costco hadn't bothered to order more Happy Go Lucky Dog weapons? He thought that they would at least try to
order more in, but it looked like putting the weapons on special had cost them quite a bit of money that they did not want to spend again. So then, what had happened to the other brands? Why did Costco only have the Rubber Ducky Brand left? Weren't they a Wholesale store that stocked every
brand of weapon? He felt the first place victory wriggle out of his grasp, stick its tongue out at him and skip leisurely away. "Come back here." He pleaded in his head pitifully. With the Rubber Ducky Brand, they were sure to lose. As the Rubber Ducky Brand indicated, they made their
weapons partially out of rubber with steel or iron. This up held the advertised grantee that the purchased weapons would be durable and would never break on you or your money back! The only draw back was… everything else! Because of the partial rubber consistency of the weapons, the
weapons were not only weaker, but they also did not fly was well, were very unbalanced and did not penetrate objects easily. The added draw back was that the rubber weapons required a different technique when they were used. Ninja's used to wielding all metal weapons whether steel or iron
would not be able to adapt to the feel of the rubber weapons. And the Hokage knew that his Ninja's could not adapt, not even within a given week. The technique was just too difficult to master. The Hokage ground his teeth. But it was either this, or no weapons at all. The boy reappeared. He looked at the Hokage and the Hokage looked at him.
"Well?" The Hokage demanded.
"Ummm," the boy looked down at his hands rather sheepishly. "I kind of forgot one small thing. Well, more like forgot to record it and forgot that it ever happened." The Hokage glared at the boy.
"Well?" he prompted again. The storm in the Hokage's head was becoming more vicious by the second. If it was something incredibly stupid, then the Hokage felt obliged to rip the boys head off of his shoulders. "What is it?"
"We're kind of out of the Rubber Ducky Brand." The boy now could not meet the Hokage's eye. The Hokage's storm broke in his head. Fury ripped through the Hokage. Things did not look good for the service desk boy, although the boy did not seem aware of it right then. With the last vestiges of control that he could muster, the Hokage asked through ground teeth,
"So you mean that you are out of everything? Every brand? NO weapons left in your store whatsoever?" The boy responded with a small nod. The Hokage was fast losing control.
"Can you tell me, who bought all the weapons?" The boy looked up, about to protest and saw the look in the Hokage's eyes. They were murderous. Changing his mind quickly, the boy quickly obliged to the Hokage's wishes and began flipping quickly through the sales records.
"Umm, my records say that it was the Sand Village that bought everything sir." The Hokage rounded on the boy.
"The Sand Village?" The Hokage's whole body began to shake. Things did not look good for the boy at all.
Silverlight Neko: Hey there! That's the second chapter for all you folks that bother to read it! . Thanks to my first reveiwee! Again, if you guys have any comments or tips and advice for me, please post. Latrz!