Restaurant Makeover [Mission, Solo, Closed]

Missions:

Yamato took a big sigh. Sitting in front of the mission boards of Tanbogakure, this was the first time he was not feeled with sheer excitement for a day of work. Unlike most of his peers, he was the type of the person to get energized by the idea of doing his job, rather than get exhausted by it. This was not one of those days. During his entire time of service to this small town hidden among the rice fields, he had always woken up earlier than all of his peers. Most of them found this fact about him daunting, annoying. ‘Teacher’s pets’, ‘workaholics’, or by the term that Yamato would have preferred to refer to himself, ‘the bare minimum employees’ like the Yamanaka were never popular among their coworkers. That was maybe the biggest downside to being the kind of person Yamato was. There were, however, some benefits as well. Getting up and getting to work earlier than all of his peers meant that Yamato got the first pickings at the day’s jobs. This meant that Yamato always ended up doing the work that he chose carefully, after thorough consideration. He always got to pick the missions that were either the best suited for his particular set of skills, or the missions that were the easiest in terms of physical labor.

Today… Things were different. He had just learned why from his coworker of long time, Reiki. Apparently, a lot of the workforce in Tanbogakure had pulled an all-nighter together last night: doing small missions they could during the night, hanging around patrolling the fields, taking breaks to drink, resting at the bathhouse, competing in various games and sports… The whole nine. All, of course, without inviting Yamato. It had hurt the Yamanaka somewhere deep that he was trying his best to hide. He did not wish to show the side to him that cared about getting invited to leisurely activities and social events. He did not want to admit he was growing fond of the people he was working with. He wanted to selfishly keep to himself, while ridiculously also wishing to be invited four-five times over to everything every time so that he could refuse three-four times, in an attempt to pretend that he neither needed nor cared for the people of Tanbo and their events; and then still be able to accept the offer when was asked the fourth-fifth time, while acting like he was barely convinced and was doing the other people a huge favor by showing up. It was… Not the brightest habit of the man who considered himself a brilliant strategist and mastermind. It appeared that social situations, still, were the toughest of battlefields for him to engage his wars in. The tactics he knew from other fields just never seemed to work.

Tanbo was teaching him every day that he had things he still needed to change - or workshop - about himself. He was not the perfect machine of politics, strategy and management that he had once labeled himself as. If he could learn to better himself in working with others, he would have been a much more efficient cog in whatever system he was a part of. That system had been Suna and Kiri in the past. He had then traveled through a lot of the lesser-known, minor villages around the continent looking for his next workplace. He had actually prioritized his work conditions over his living conditions, so it turned out to be a great play of fate that Tanbo had so far proven itself very satisfactory in both regards.

But all of that was far in the backstreets of Yamato’s mind today, hidden behind shadows and concrete giants. At that exact moment, he was staring at the nearly-empty mission board, frustrated. The activities the shinobi had done during the all-nighter they had pulled together had made Yamato jealous, true. That was, however, only the tip of the iceberg that was Yamato’s grief. The betrayers, the backstabbers, the traitors had only enjoyed themselves without Yamato’s company throughout the night, but Reiki next explained to Yamato that when it was nearing dawn, someone among them (Reiki dared not reveal who exactly it was, understanding at this point that Yamato was secretly furious) had come up with a brilliant idea.

All of them must have been tired at that point, minutes before dawn. Starting a whole day of work apparently seemed daunting to them. They could have gone home and gotten small amounts of sleep, but that would not have been enough to energize them for the full day of work ahead of them either. If they slept over to energize themselves, they would have been late to work, and undoubtedly get punished for it. They could not have taken the whole day off either, not this close to it. They would have had to notify their superiors days before, and even then it was frowned upon. It was also holidays. Nobody wanted to work the whole day. Oh what a dilemma it was. The anonymous genius then snapped their fingers and shared their brilliant idea with the group. Everyone apparently loved the idea and went along with it. They arrived at the headquarters before missions were dealt out, even before Yamato was there; which was rare to most of them, if not all. They then took the easiest-to-do jobs that were planned for the day, and jobs that were not stuck to a rigid schedule. They then teamed up for these easy jobs (both in terms of simplicity, being physically undemanding, and requiring little time compared to others), and they had already started and done most of them, so they could finish their day’s work early and retire home before it was noon. Yamato despised them for this act. It was not something he would soon forget, actually making a note of it in his notebook so that he could take his revenge (regardless of what form it took) when it was time.

Reiki could of course see Yamato’s face lighting up with the most poisonous mix of rage and jealousy. Despite everything that was going on, Yamato could (in the smallest corners of the depths of his mind that weren’t fully taken over by his fury yet) still appreciate Reiki’s understanding of Yamato’s feelings, and his attempts of easing the Yamanaka’s hurt. He tried explaining everything slowly and carefully to allow Yamato to take this story one beat at a time. It was sort of like being lowered slowly into a pool of acid, but at the same time Reiki’s tone and manners (keeping eye contact, physically comforting Yamato by touching his shoulders in the especially treacherous parts, admitting his own partaking in shame, etc.) were still comforting, and made it easier for Yamato to sit through the entire story without feeling the urge to walk up to management and find some random reasons to complain about everyone and everything wrong they had ever done. Once Reiki was done explaining the entire situation, Yamato hugged the man firmly, and thanked him for being honest with him, let alone feeling the need to explain things at all. Reiki had to join up with the rest of his team again, so he leftly shortly afterwards, but not after handing over a small piece of paper to Yamato. Yamato said his farewells to Reiki before checking out the details of said paper.

The texture of the paper already felt familiar. His heart skipped a beat. He had a faint little wish for what the paper was, but he couldn’t bear actually admitting his wish and risking his heart getting shattered into a million pieces. So he tried suppressing that wish as best as he could. He told himself to expect nothing, so that he wouldn’t be disappointed. With his mind clear, his heart trying its best not to yearn for anything, he checked the contents of the paper. That bastard Reiki. That beautiful, thoughtful asshole. He had snuck away one little mission just for Yamato. The blonde man actually shed a tear as he read the details. It was the exact kind of mission he would have picked for himself, if he had gotten the chance. With both of his eyes tearing up at this point, he turned to see if Reiki was still in his presence. Just as soon as he laid his eyes on him, Reiki turned a corner and disappeared into the streets of this jolly little town.


Yamato put the piece of paper detailing his mission between two pages of his notebook that were full of notes about the story that Reiki had just told him. He then put it all back into his pocket on the inside of his jacket. He hoped to keep this piece of paper forever, to remember and cherish this moment eternally. Reiki was a true friend. He was an honest, friendly, helpful person just like many of the people Yamato had been lucky enough to befriend during his short stay. He promised himself right then, to pay Tanbo back one day, for all the kindness it had shown him.

With a start this momentous for Yamato, he had no right to fail this mission. His legs had already started the work for him, walking him in the direction of the work that awaited him. The mission was simple: help an up-and-coming restaurant set their place up for their grand opening. There was going to be shopping, cleaning, a photoshoot, the whole thing. It was a big marketing job. The perfect thing for Yamato. After just a short walk, he was already in front of… The place that was supposed to be a restaurant. He looked inside through the glass windows. The place was empty and covered in dust. Yamato was instantly filled with stress, but also excitement. His work was cut out for him. He headed inside.

The sounds of a stressed-out old man reached Yamato’s ears before he entered the corner office so the man who must have been the owner, detailing his plans to a couple of workers. The revelation that some, if not most of the physical work was about to be taken over by others comforted Yamato deeply. The Yamanaka greeted the owner, explaining to the old man who he was. The man shared his plans in detail with Yamato. The plans weren’t bad overall, but Yamato found a lot of places where he could nitpick and not only improve things for the man, but also make them easier (and cheaper) to pull off. It was simple knowledge of the market prices, and knowing where you could cut off budget without destroying quality, and what was integral to put the money in. Luckily they seemed to have already made a deal with a photographer, who was to arrive in a short few hours.

Once the plans were set in motion with the perfectionist additions by Yamato, the Yamanaka left the restaurant to do the shopping he needed to do for the photoshoot and the opening. He visited a carpenter to make small decorations that were fast and easy to pull off, but would have brightened up the restaurant a disproportionate amount. Just a little amount of ryo being paid was going to make a huge difference in the aesthetic, not only pulling more customers through the marketing, but pleasing the customers and making them want to pay even more money in the restaurant for the quality experience they were getting. In the same spirit he also picked out carpets, curtains and various small decorations he could set up inside the restaurant. The best tricks were the glasses he had bought from a glassblower nearby that seemed magnificent, and were still incredibly cheap based on the owner’s budget.

And of course, there was food to buy, and lots of it. The owner had mistakenly bought too much of it far too long ahead of time, and was about to serve his first guests (with critics hidden among them without any doubt) food that was frozen or worse, stale. Yamato managed to cut corners elsewhere to make an even bigger budget for the food he needed to buy to make up for this mistake by the restaurant owner. He had already done research in this are and knew where to find the best bang for his buck. He also haggled a little bit to bring the price down even further. He returned to the restaurant with all of the fresh food picked from the best places in Tanbo. The best rice, the best fish… It almost made Yamato hungry just staring at everything uncooked.

He had a short talk with the owner before starting his work again, and secured himself a position at the grand opening. With this additional business settled, it was time to set everything up before the photographer arrived. He had a lot of help during this phase of his job, so it was hardly any hassle. Both Yamato and the owner had the foresight to plan everything out elaborately, which cut down on the menial labor by a long time. So much so, in fact that the place was clean and glamorously ready way ahead of the schedule. Yamato set down with the owner and the workers (who were more than happy their work was done so fast) to share some tea before the photographer arrived. They conversed for some time, then the workers packed up and left. Not a long time after, the scheduled photographer arrived, with a worried look on his face that sent shivers down Yamato’s spine. ‘Not now.’ he thought to himself, ‘I can’t fail now, this close to the finish line. Not because of something that was out of my control, my hands…’.

He talked with the photographer to see what troubled him. Fortunately it was nothing that couldn’t be helped. The photographer’s assistant turned out to have quit on him just ten minutes before the job. It seemed there were a lot of moving parts in this man’s field of expertise, and he needed some hand doing jobs this big. Yamato happily offered his help, being open about his lack of experience in the field. The man agreed, knowing Yamato was his best choice at this point.

Once he explained some basics to Yamato (who was rather fast to pick it up, especially considering the stress he was under), they started shooting. The machinery was fascinating. Yamato was hardly a man interested in technology, but he couldn’t deny the beautiful things some machinations like this one accomplished with little to no need for Jutsu training. The shoot took a few hours. They were trying every angle, every lighting and picking the best photographs from among them. Yamato even got to hold the ‘camera’ for some of the shoots after a while, once the artist had started trusting in him.

He was finally done, after 50 photographs that were picked to be printed and distributed, and about 450 that were trashed. It had turned out to be a more exhausting job than Yamato had first assumed. It had seemed like the machine was going to be doing most of the work. That… Was not the case. Yamato was dying from exhaustion, but still smiling with the satisfaction he got from a job well done. Just a few hours before the grand opening, everything was ready. Yamato shook hands with the owner, and got his written declaration of the accomplished mission.

Yamato rushed out of the restaurant. He only had a short few hours to collect his reward, go home, take a shower and get ready for the grand opening. He ran through the streets to make it home as quickly as he possibly could. He didn’t even stop by the post office to see if his most recent book purchase had arrived. Once he made it home, he showered and got dressed in his finest clothes faster than he had ever done so. As soon as he was about to leave, a thought occurred to him. He froze in the entryway to his home, his door open, his hand on the door handle. He searched for the notebook in his jacket that was now hanging in the entrance. He ripped out a page, after browsing past his day’s notes (along with the piece of paper that Reiki had gifted him just a few hours ago). He grabbed a pen and started writing on the ripped-out page.

He sped out of his home once again. It was almost time. He couldn’t be late. Yamato was never late. He did however risk taking a detour on his way to the grand opening, to swing by Reiki’s house. He threw the ripped-out page he had written a note on through the opening under Reiki’s front door, knocked strongly a few times, then got back on his track to sprint towards the restaurant. Reiki opened the door to see a fleeing Yamato. He then saw the note, and picked it up to read it.

“Hey Reiki. Thank you. You know why. I’m on my way to the grand opening. I have a table reserved for me. Please feel free to join me if you wish. If you have other plans, please don’t think I’ll be disappointed if you don’t show up. Take care, your friend Yamato.”.

Reiki smiled, scratched the back of his head and closed the door to head back in. Unfortunately, Yamato ended up not being joined by his dear friend Reiki, who had made promises to the team that had aided him during that day’s missions. Yamato tried not to show his sadness during the dinner when he realized Reiki would not be making it after all, reminding himself that he personally wrote the words ‘Don’t think I’ll be disappointed if you don’t show up’. The Yamanaka was once again reminded that he needed to learn how to communicate better if he wanted different results.

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Post WC: 3013
Total WC: 3013


30 Stats: 20 Chakra, 10 Speed
1500WC for Hidden Mist Technique
1000WC for C-Rank Seal Sense
500WC for Basic Sealing Technique
15WC left is used for thanking whichever mods approves this post.

Mission Rewards: 4000ryo, 20AP