CH_26

CH_26

The bustling streets of the Leaf village suited one of a metropolitan in its busy residents traversing them in hordes every day to get to the next task of their fast lives. No one paid attention to the unassuming young child that sat on the roadside bench with a creaky exercise gripper in hand.

Takuma watched the two shops in front of him. One was a mom-and-pop diner, and the other was a branch of the Leaf Postal Services. The sun was at its peak height, with the shade of the building above him as his only shelter. The clock had entered the lunchtime zone.

Meaning rush crunchtime for both businesses. People rushed into the post office in the urgency to have their work done before the tellers placed lunch break signs in front of their counters and disappeared for three-quarters of an hour official break. But Takuma knew for a fact that the employees in the district six branch of Leaf Postal Service took breaks beyond an hour, something against policy. No one punished them; the lazy branch manager never ever arrived before lunch.

As any eatery would, the small diner was busy in the lunchtime zone. It wasn't a place for families or friends to dine out together. The diner's main clientele was the working men and women who wanted an affordable lunch every day without burning a hole in their pockets. Takuma's eyes were drawn to the man who walked into the diner; he recognized the man and knew he would come walking out in a few minutes. As he knew, the man wearing a factory worker's garb walked out of the diner with a packed lunch in his hand. The diner was famous for its takeaway lunch box service and sold many around lunchtime.

Takuma counted. He counted the people who went into the shop. He counted when they entered, how long they stayed, when they left. He watched the post office to see how many people dropped off packages and how many picked something up. For the diner, he measured their lunchbox sales, their dine-in numbers, and how long it took people to eat their food.

And he noted down the points of interest he saw. He didn't know shorthand or any coded language to record information yet, but knowing what to take down and how to do it was important in note taking was a skill in itself that needed polishing (or so Kibe had said in class).

His eyes were drawn to the post office as a group of people exited the building. All of them wore matching baby blue uniforms, the staple color for postal service employees. The group of men and women entered the diner.

Takuma looked toward the storefront beside him at the wall clock and noted the time. It was precisely one o'clock. Now, he had to wait. Takuma took out a packed lunch of his own— it was lunchtime, after all.

The minute hand on the wall clock made its way across the clock face until it reached the end of the post office lunchtime. The employees didn't exit the diner, but the people in need of the service had already started to line up in the store.

Based on his past observations, Takuma knew the post office tellers wouldn't leave the diner before it was at least one hour because if they entered the post office, they would've to work under customer pressure. Takuma cleaned up any mess he had made while eating and waited five more minutes to see if the tellers would return to their job.

He rubbed his knees as he looked between the post office and the diner.

"Alright, let's do this," Takuma said to himself.

He got up and walked into a nearby dark alley. He put his lunch bag to the side and pulled up both of his sleeves to reveal a row of 1-ryu coins each stuck on his arm from his wrists to shoulders. On a closer look, each coin was actually a stack of two coins taped together. A high-risk exercise developed by Takuma to force himself to improve his chakra control. Every ryu was essential to his monthly budget before he got his next allowance, and misplacing money without getting to spend it made his life hell on earth— he would rather spend money on unneeded commodities than unknowingly drop it somewhere. Thus came the risk— to maintain concentration on precise chakra control or lose precious money with the threat of going hungry on the last few days of the month.

The results were worth the constant fear of losing money. He had gone from feather-like leaves to heavy coins. If asked, Takuma would take Maruboshi's sprinting torture over his mental brand of punishment— physical exhaustion was temporary, but money loss was permanent— alas, that was the point.

He pulled up his shorts and pulled off the slanted band of coins circling his thigh, and put his hand up his shirt to get a couple coins off his front and back. More coins, larger risk.

Takuma placed upon his heart and felt its elevated pulse. He breathed in and out to calm his nerves and stared at the post office to reaffirm his conviction. He had to do it. It was the test before the test— a harder one to make the easy one a breeze.

Dog — Boar — Ram

The guard pulled in a plump middle-aged woman with red-rimmed glasses and the most outrageously puffed-up hairstyle he had seen on a woman. The first time he had seen the woman had been an experience.

Takuma didn't give the woman a chance to speak. "Why isn't," he coughed twice, "everyone back already." The woman tried to reply, but Takuma didn't let her speak. "Why aren't you already at the counter?" He bore down at her with a menacing gaze.

The woman shriveled under his gaze. She tried to eek out, "M-Manager, I-I..."

"Can't you see, you're wasting these people's time?" he said loud enough so that everyone could hear. "Why are you still standing here? Go! Go! Do your job, or do you want me to do it for you?"

The terrified woman rushed her chubby legs to her counter and immediately opened it for business.

"I swear, not one of them does their job properly," Takuma grunted. He turned to the guard and scolded him, "What are you doing, standing there like a buffoon? Don't you see all these people waiting? Go and bring everyone back."

The guard rushed out of the building.

Takuma had scolded two of the post office employees while pretending to be their boss. Talked to an entire crowd while pretending to be someone else. As fun as he felt it was— it was now time to leave.

He immediately walked out of the building and saw the guard entering the diner. He dropped the handkerchief over his face and walked back into the alley.

Poof! Takuma went back to his original form. He picked up his lunch bag and exited the alleyway. He watched from beside the roadside bench as the uniformed employees rushed out of the diner and ran into the post office.

Takuma grinned. That was mission accomplished.

'From Lupin to Kaido Kid, screw everyone. I will be the best impersonator, the grandmaster of disguise, north of fantasy,' Takuma thought.

After enjoying the fruit of his labor for a moment, Takuma ducked back into the street. He put the coins back on his body. The day would be perfect if he got home with all the money still on his body.

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