The Shopkeeper of Konoha

Aoi and Takeo had been living through a tough life this week. They were two of the construction workers who had been working hard. The Kyuubi's attack was a brutal one and they had been assigned to regular assignments all over the village. In fact the repair of Aoto's shop was also done by them.

They had been brought up in this neighbourhood and had been buying bread from them since they had known of the shop. So when the shop was asked for repair, Aoi and Takeo without any hesitation took the job on their shoulders and helped the child build their shop again.

When Aoto first opened the shop, both of them had gone to buy the bread made by the child. They didn't really care about the quality of the bread. Aoto's father had lent them bread many times when they were children and they didn't forget that. Now that his child was on the other side it was necessary for them to lend a hand.

In fact they didn't want any payment either, but apparently Aoto had already paid the full amount upfront. After a hard day they had returned home and since it was weekend the next day both of them had got together to have some fun. Takeo had brought a bottle of sake with him to have some fun. Aoi's home had a small campfire in his very small courtyard. This house belonged to Aoi's father who had died a few years ago and Aoi took over the house and looked after his mother.

"You again brought a cheap sake, Takeo? You don't have any shame?"

"Aoi, this sake is not cheap. I paid 100 ryo for this. You brought the last one which was 80 ryo. I paid higher."

"This is 100 ryo? Did someone scam you?"

Aoi said while looking at the label. The price written was 100 ryo but Aoi couldn't believe it because the bottle looked old. Sake wasn't like wine which could be aged so an old looking sake was bad for them.

"Why does this look old?"

"How do I know?"

Both Aoi and Takeo were actually ranting nonsensically and were nothing but useless arguments between friends. They sat around the campfire with sake and some Tebasaki (Japanese styled chicken wings) for appetizers.

While drinking for a bit, Aoi took out the 'cigarette' that he had been gifted before by Aoto. Looking at Aoi, Takeo, who had brought it with himself, opened the wrap.

"That child had grown up. Even selling such a thing."

"What can you say? His parents died, I am sure he is in debt repairing the shop, so he needed to do some odd jobs. If this thing is good, we can buy from him and help him in his debt."

"Of course."

Both of them had assumed that Aoto was in some kind of debt after he repaired the shop and thus they were helping him in any way they could. Aoi and Takeo didn't think much and lit the joint and puffed.

What they didn't expect was that it wasn't tobacco. They both had been smoking for quite a long time so they already knew how the smoke of tobacco was but it was nothing like that. But then again, the smoke wasn't and so they puffed more than a couple of times.

At first there was no effect, but soon they felt a relief. A relief that coursed through their body. Doing construction work the whole day was tiring for the body so when they felt all the pain and soreness subsided, they felt ecstatic and exhilarated. This was something else!

"What is this?" Aoi was shaken by what just happened.

"Did this cigarette do that?"

Both Aoi and Takeo were sober enough at that point to know that the sake wasn't giving them this form of relief but the unique cigarette.

"Takeo, are you feeling what I am feeling?"

"This is amazing. All the pain had gone away. Oh man! This is awesome."

Without another stop they started puffing the smoke in regular intervals while also drinking sake. This was their first time smoking a joint so they got high pretty quickly. At first it was only pain relief which made them more than happy.

But later many things came with it. They felt an intense urge to eat some munchies and the Tebasaki wasn't enough so Takeo had to go back and bring more. And even then this wasn't enough. Aoi had to bring some fried tempura which had gone cold but they still went for it.

Since this was their first time with weed and that too they had consumed with sake, they felt dizzy and were having hallucinations.

"Oye Aoi, you know that I had a thing for Hina-chan in school."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And then you asshole went to ask her out. I wanted the beat the shit out of you."

"I only went with her for one time."

"Still wanted to beat you."

"Do you still want to beat me up?"

"Yes. Definitely."

"Okay let's see who wins."

Anyone else listening to the conversation would think that these two guys were too drunk and were on the verge of having a fight. But no, these two wanted to settle the debate in the most unique way possible.

Rock-paper-scissor!

"This will be decided in a 5-match.."

"Let's go bitch. Let's see who wins."

"Rock-paper-scissor.."

"Rock-paper-scissor.."

They proceeded to play for 5 matches but they were so high that they couldn't remember how many each of the two had won and thus they again started the 5 - match deal. By that time they couldn't realize that both of them were too high. After this episode of rock-paper-scissors and realizing that they couldn't even remember they lost the zeal to continue the fight and decided on a draw.

But this wasn't the end. After they started dancing around the campfire and singing in a jolly mood. Aoi's mother had already noticed that these two were too high to function and dragged both of them inside to let them sleep.