Shikamaru held up the piece of paper he'd written the address of Spells R' Us down on and looked at it. Then he looked past it to that very store. "Well," he mumbled, "Looks like this is it."
It looked dark and the 'Closed' sign was out, but Shikamaru walked up to it all the same. He knocked on the door a couple of times, and looked in through the glass panes in the upper part of it.
After waiting for a minute with no answer, he knocked again, this time with a little less patience. Then he heard some faint shuffling and footsteps. Soon enough the door cracked open and a little hobbled old man peeked out. "We closed," he said plainly, pointing at the sign.
Shikamaru rubbed his head. "Yes I know. Look, I'm sorry about this, but I'm on a mission and I'm looking for a lead here."
The man looked Shikamaru up and down for a moment, as if wondering if this was really the truth. He seemed satisfied, then opened the door a little more. "Very well," he said. "How can I help?"
Shikamaru smiled a little. "Well, I'm trying to find out about a certain operative named Haruno Sakura. I may know where she is, but she's in a rather...odd condition."
The old man leaned against the door frame and nodded, as if motioning for Shikamaru to go on.
"Well you see this person...I know it sounds strange, but she showed up, looking like some half-human, half-pillow, and happened to mention your shop...sort of."
This seemed to click with the man. "Oh HER!" he said, waving his hand. "Strange girl who not know WHAT she want," he vented.
Shikamaru blinked. He seemed to have hit the nail on it's head. "Please go on," he urged the man.
"She come into shop, looking for clothing. She try some on but want something more. So I tell her I make her whatever she want!" the old man started. "So she tell me about clothes she want and clothes make her like human pillow. She tell me this, sir!" he assured Shikamaru. "So I make clothes and she try on. She like, until start turn into pillow. Then she freak and try to take off. Transformation complete and she say she want antidote. So I go and get, and when I get back she change her mind! Then I help her out of here. I think she got a little antidote on her. Silly girl not know WHAT she want!"
Shikamaru stared with wide eyes, wanting NOT to believe this man, as the very logical part of his brain told him he should do. But he had seen Sakura...and he knew in his gut that it was really her. This man must have some very very strange sort of powers to be able to do that to a person. He was very likely...dangerous.
But at this point, what mattered was curing Sakura. He had to appeal to this man as best as he could. "Please sir," he started. "I hate to ask this, but do you have any more of that antidote?"
The old man scratched his chin. "I don't know," he said. "I not sure if I have any left..."
Shikamaru restrained himself from groaning. He could tell what this man wanted. He reached into his pouch and brought out his wallet. Pulling out some money he said, "I'd be...glad to pay you for your trouble."
The old man eyed the money carefully, before snatching it and counting it with one hand, while other reached inside the store, where Shikamaru couldn't see, and returned a split second later with a vial. "Here you go. I figure maybe girl change mind again, so I make some more just in case," he said, handing it to Shikamaru, who stuffed it back in his pouch with his wallet.
"And since you such good paying customer," he grinned, that vial super hard. Unbreakable. Bonus for you sir."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, but smiled. "Thanks very much for your time sir."
"Aaaah no problem," the man said dismissively. "Thank you for business!" he said with a bow.
Shikamaru then turned around and began his trek back to Tsunade-sama's office. It was time to rectify this situation.
Fri Aug 29 08:45:16 2008