Miko grinned happily as she carried boxes into the storage room on the third floor.
A glass blowing room and a wood/stone carving room had recently been added and they were busing shuffling around supplies as the renovators left. Since they were considerably more dangerous arts then painting they had been moved up to the third floor.
The third floor was dim and empty, Miko being the last one left. The smell of paint and baked clay was strong here, along with plaster.
The last renovator had left and she was alone up here in the back storage room. She was helping out her relatives by sorting and moving the boxes. She put the glazes in rainbow order, put the sharp tools in specially marked boxed, and put the extra clay in airtight boxes. It was exhausting going up and down the stairs with these supplies, but next week she heard they would be working on getting an elevator installed.
But it was one thing at a time, and they were still working on the gardens.
Miko winced as she dropped a metal tool, the sound echoing around the room. A couple members of her family were sleeping above on the fourth floor. She made the decision to sneak up later, and get a view of the in-progress gardens.
Deciding to do a little extra, she took some of the bone dry pieces and wheeled them over to the kilns. Kilns were a tricky business, getting up to 1,800F to 2,400F.
It had cooled down to the point where she could load it up to the full. She took the others pieces out and laid them on the shelves to cool off. Placing pottery in a kiln was a lot like a puzzle, or tetris. You need enough space between the pieces so they wouldn't stick, and also needed to fit as much in as possible. If the pieces were glazes, you needed to make sure it wouldn't drip. Not to mention the varying shapes and sizes.
She had just loaded the last piece and was preparing to fire it up when something stopped her dead in her tracks.
Purposefully moving a tool to keep the lid open, she searched the side of the container. It was compromised. Somehow, the side of the lid had been damaged to the point where if it was fired up, the whole thing would explode, bringing the third and fourth floor with it, not to mention damage to the second. It was for this reason all materials were fireproofed in the building.
If she had fired this up without looking her family upstairs would have all died.
Hands shaking, she ran behind it and pulled the plug. She pulled it wide open and wrote three notes and slapped it to all sides. She ran to the other kiln and was relieved to find no damage. Just in case, she pulled the plug on that one too.
It was when she had placed foot on the top step she almost fell and broke her neck.
Those kilns were made out of solid metal and some of the best, hardy materials you could find. Especially the lid. Because it contained temperatures that could burn your bones to dust.
How could you accidentally damage it to the point where it would result in the deaths of multiple people and the destruction of one of the Uchiha's most important establishments?
That was just it.
You couldn't.
Someone had sabotaged their equipment.
When she went to get Akira, he shook his head at the damage and scheduled a replacement. In the mean time, he shut off power to the third floor. While he thought it was fishy too, there was nothing they could do to prove it wasn't an accident. A cat ban and the shutting down of restaruants was one thing. Something that could have resulted in the deaths of others was another.
This raised the stakes.
While she walked out of the institute not even the fresh flowers and sunlight could chase away the haunting smell of cooked clay and fire.