Helping the Needy

Warming up the Shelters:

Max would look at the mission board and almost jump for joy. It looks as though Lady Akihana was able to convince Lord Raikage to put forth the funds needed to support the shelters as they had needed. Max would jot down all of the things that the mission had required of him, but it was almost unneeded. Max knew many of the things that the shelters needed from personal experience. Still, he would take notes on what exactly he was delivering to the shelters. Walking over to the shinobi in charge of the paperwork for each mission, Max would let him know that he would be completing this one in particular today. Max hadn’t been the most formal with things like this, so with that said he just left and headed to the area listed where the goods should be at. He didn’t wait around to sign anything, or go through the proper procedure. He was far too excited that he would be able to help the shelters.
 
Almost with a spring in his step, Max would rush off to the building that had been used to store all of the supplies. It looked as though there were only a few people here, managing all of the inventory. With such a small staff, this stock area would be relatively unmanned. “If this area were to be attacked by the civilians, would these few men be able to stop it?” Max would wonder, but Napa would just whisper in his ear, “The civilians wouldn’t dare do such a thing. Even though these goods are for them, they are still Mortarion’s goods. No civilians would be foolish enough to do that, no matter how desperate. Plus, it would only make the Raikage rethink whether or not they were worth helping.” Max would nod, knowing that the Napa had been right. Plus, a bunch of weak and hungry civilians would hardly be a match for a trained shinobi. Of course, there were some homeless shinobi there as well. Those whose families had prospered prior to the hostile takeover. Shinobi like Max… They would be even less likely to try anything though. They barely escaped the attacks on Kumo with their lives, and they have managed to remain either hidden or deemed non-threat by the Raikage. They wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.
 
 Shaking off such thoughts, Max would walk up and ask for the supplies that he had needed. An older man, maybe in his middle to late forties would walk over. “Ah, another shinobi here to bring these supplies to the shelters. Good. I’ll need you to sign some paperwork so that I can give you these supplies. Once signed over, they are your responsibility to deliver them and should anything happen to them, it would fall on you. Do you understand, young one?” The man had been talking to Max as if he were a child. Well, he was a child, but that didn’t mean that he was unable to follow along with basic understanding. This child was a Kumogakure shinobi. Napa could sense the annoyance Max had been feeling, but then most of the bad feelings had went away when he had realized something rather important. This man didn’t give him any strange looks, or anything of the like. Max was finally becoming truly accepted by those around him. That put a smile on the boys face and he would sign off on the paperwork, “Understood. This parcels are now under my protection and therefore anything that happens to them will be my responsibility.” The man would signal over to his assistant to gather up all of the needed supplies and bring them outside. The man would finish by saying, “Here, have someone in charge sign these.” Max would take the papers, then thank them and then be off.
 
The boy had been nowhere near strong enough to lift these heavy crates. Luckily for him, he had rather strong friends to help. His hands would stretch outwards and threads would work their way into the wrappings. The puppets would emerge, ready to carry out what Max had needed them for.
“Wait a second, you called me out here to do what exactly? You really want me to carry this stuff around? Why don’t you carry it? What do I look like, a pack mule? Sheesh.” Napa would say, complaining about the duties Max wanted him to carry out. “Napa, please just do this. It is to help out the shelters. Akihana had pulled through and made good on her promise to have the Raikage set funds out to get those supplies,” the boy would beg, “Please just do this for me.”
 
Napa didn’t really want to do it, but he also didn’t want to upset the boy. Hearing Max whine about how heavy the crates were would be the last thing that Napa would want to have to deal with. And so, Napa would pick one of the two crates up and the other, nameless puppet would pick up the other. Max would first head over to the shelter that he hadn’t been familiar with. It wouldn’t take long for him to navigate his way there, the townsfolk looking in shock as two skeletons carried large crates around the town behind little Max.
 
The building was rather large, the larger of the two buildings used for shelters. This was the one where the older homeless folks and their children would be taken in and given a warm place to stay. Max would slowly walk his way over to the nearest person that looked like they had worked here. The puppets would set the crates down and wait, not wanting to startle the folks. An older lady with a clipboard had been walking about, muttering barely audible thoughts as she stared at the work before her.
 
“What is it that you want, kid? I’m kind of busy here. Winter has hit and we aren’t yet quite ready for it. There were supposed to be supplies coming in, but we have only seen a little bit of it. It was then that she turned and saw the headband, “Oh, you must be here to deliver the supplies. Well do you have the paperwork for me to sign? Please hurry up, I have a lot more to do today.”
 
Max felt around in his pockets, frantically searching for the papers. Some of the homeless folks were looking at him, and a few of them pointed stared as they talked to one another. Max had been used to such treatment when he had Napa with him, but he was alone now. What reason did they have to do such a thing? Max would try to avoid thinking about it, avoid feeling them staring a whole through him. Finally, he found the paper and handed it over to the lady. She would snatch it up and sign off.  “You are going to have to place those supplies where they go. There is a small shed out back that we keep firewood dry in, there is a pantry where you will have to deliver the food, and the blankets are to be delivered to the public area to be handed out by our staff members. Is all of that clear?” Max would nod and head outside, and one of the older homeless people who had been staring him down would follow him out.
 
Upon making his way outside, Max would ignore them and begin having his puppets lift the crate to be hauled to the back where the shed had been. It was cold out, but Max could keep warm in his father’s old coat. Upon seeing the puppets the older gentleman had gasped, and Max turned around ready to question the man, but before he could do so the man would give the boy a warm smile, “You have your mother’s eyes, Maximillian and your father’s talents. I thought you looked familiar in there. You are a bit older and bigger than I recall, but that is to be expected.”
Max would have a look of confusion written all over his face. Who was this man, and how did he know Max? Right as he was about to ask, the man spoke up again, almost as if he knew what the boy was going to say, “I’m just an old friend of your family. I knew your clansmen since before you were born. I heard rumors that the attacks had extinguished the Yamaguchi clan, but I am glad to know that you are alive and well, Maximillian.” He would say with a cheery smile. “And here you are, helping out the citizens of the village. Your family would be proud.”
 
Max, upon hearing this would almost start to cry. He didn’t like to think of his parents and his clan. It generally hurt too much. He didn’t know what to say. Was there anything that he could say? A simple, “Thanks” would have suffice. This elderly gentleman had caught the young boy completely off guard. The man would say his goodbyes and head back into the shelter as Max waved before heading to the back to stack the firewood. Was that man really a friend of his clan? He couldn’t remember him, but many of his memories from that time had been pushed to the back corners of his mind. As he had been thinking about this, snow began to fall. He would have to hurry up before he froze out here. Making haste, the boy finished stacking the firewood.
 
Grabbing the food items next, he would start the process to stock the shelves of the pantry to the best of his ability. Because of his short stature, he would have to use a step-ladder to reach the taller shelves. Stein would have no issue completing the task, but Stein had the tendency to spoil things around him when he was active. Not to mention if one of the citizens came in he could have potentially killed them. So Max would do things the hard way by himself. It wasn’t so much hard, more that he had been used to always having his puppets there to help him with everything. After that was done, he would drop the blankets off in the building and finish his job in here in this shelter.
 
Rushing to try and keep warm despite the snow, Max had slipped and fallen at least two different times while heading across the village to the other shelter. This one was the one he frequented, the one with all the babies he loved. Max would set the crate down and proceed to do in a similar fashion what he had done in the other shelter. He knew where everything was in this building though, so it took him much less time to look for where things went. The caretakers had kept looking at him, realizing that he had been the catalyst for all of these changes. One could see the twinkle of pride in their eyes, glad to see that the boy had been doing such kindnesses. Akihana had been quite an influence on the boy, even if she (or even he) had not truly realized. Napa had known though. He seemed to know everything.
 
Making haste to finish off the tasks, he got the signature from one of the caretakers and almost left. Before he did so though, she had ruffled the boy’s hair and gave him a hearty “Thank you, Max.” With that said, Max felt he couldn’t leave until he did more for them.
 
He ran into town and procured some thick plastic sheets, some nails, and some bricks. He would go around to each of the windows and nail plastic over it to help keep out the draft. There were a few cracks in the walls, and so Max would place a sheet of plastic over those cracks and then stack up the bricks to try and hold it in place since he could put nails through some of the places. While the nails might have caused minor damage to the window sills, it would keep the cold out until the winter cold had passed. By then, Max would be able to try and help fund a more drastic revitalization of the building. Hopefully all would go according to plan and he wouldn’t have to worry so much about these folks for the next winter.
 
Before he left, Max would play with the babies a little bit. He had a mission to turn in, but such things could wait a bit.
 

Upon returning to the building where he had taken the mission, he handed over the signed paperwork signifying that it was done. “I would like my Ryo reward to be donated to the Orphanage.” Max would say, hoping this man could take care of whatever paperwork that involved. “Okay, but I’ll need you to sign here, here and…. Here.” The man would reply, passing over the paperwork for the boy to sign off on. 


Total WC: 2177

Claiming:
Ryo reward to be given to the Orphanage
3 AP
A cookie from Akihana (do I get this IC?)
A good deed done.