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“Party planner?” the ninja on the
other side of the office table looked up from Harry's documents with
open confusion. “Is that an actual job?”
“It's what I do,” Harry replied
with a wry smile. It's what I have to do since it's on the papers,
was the more honest reply to the question.
“What do you do as a party planner?”
Having spent almost three weeks trying
to get to Konoha on his own, Harry had put a lot of thought into his
'job'. “When someone wants to have a party, they hire me to set
things up. That means I find a place for the party, decorate it, get
the food and just prepare everything. The person just has to show up
and start the party.”
The ninja blinked at Harry. “You're
just doing everything.”
“Pretty much,” Harry nodded.
“I've never heard of such a job,”
the ninja said with a frown as he tugged on his goatee. “Then
again, not many people throw parties in Konoha.”
“Everyone needs parties to
celebrate,” Harry said. “They're the easiest way to make good
memories.”
“Good memories, huh. That is
definitely a rarity.” The ninja leaned back in his chair and look
away from Harry. “What kind of parties do you do?”
“Everything other than weddings,”
Harry replied without hesitation.
“Weddings would have been your
biggest revenue,” the ninja replied, looking almost worried for
Harry's potential lost revenue.
Harry shrugged. “Weddings are too...
I don't want to deal with something that important and complicated.”
“Fair enough,” the ninja said with
a nod. “So then, birthday parties?”
Harry nodded. “Anything that needs to
be celebrated with a party is something I can work with. Like
retirement, getting a new job, maybe even just a promotion. Then
there's having a baby, recovering from an illness and getting out of
the hospital... things like that need to be celebrated more.”
“Sounds like you could be busy even
without the weddings,” the ninja said with a thoughtful look. “What
are your plans for establishing yourself in Konoha? Especially since
no one has heard of your job before.”
Again, Harry had spent quite a lot of
time thinking of answers to questions like this, over while he had
travelled to Konoha over the past few weeks. “I'll have to start by
going around to all the restaurants and bakeries to find out which
places could cater for any parties.”
The ninja looked surprised but pleased
by Harry's answer.
“And I'll also need to look into
where I can get decorations, and furniture like long tables and
chairs,” Harry added absently.
“You've really given this a lot of
thought.”
Harry shrugged. “I have to, it's my
job. If I can't give people the good parties they want, then I'm not
doing my job.”
The ninja nodded and leaned forward. “I
know it's sudden and you still have a lot to do to settle down in the
village. But how would you feel about helping me throw a party in
about two weeks?”
Harry gaped at the ninja. “You're
giving me a job? Before you've even allowed me entry into Konoha.”
“Oh, right,” the ninja stamped
Harry's papers and handed them back to him. “So about this party. A
friend's birthday is coming up and...”
To show that he was an actual
party-planner, Harry had to take notes as he talked with the man.
Thankfully, the man gave him a spare notepad and a pen to take
copious notes on who the party was for, and even a list of places
that Harry could check for possible catering.
With a deposit on his first party
request in hand, Harry entered Konoha in a stunned daze. He dumped
his belongings in his new apartment under some protection spells and
started his new job as a party planner.
By the end of his first day in Konoha,
Harry had found a bakery that took cake orders.
Over the next few days, Harry found
three restaurants that were willing to take a chance with him and
cater any parties he had. They were even willing to provide him with
tables and chairs if he needed them. He even found a place that sold
cheap decorations and spent a majority of his free time in the
apartment changing those cheap decorations into something less ugly
with the help of his magic.
On the day of his first ever party,
Harry woke up early and hauled a bag full of items to the empty party
location that the ninja had told Harry about.
Setting up the tables and chairs loaned
from the restaurant that was bringing the food for the party, hanging
up his magically altered decorations and putting up numerous balloons
around the large room took hours.
“Shit, am I in the right place?” A
voice exclaimed from the entrance.
“Iwashi-san,” Harry greeted his
first client as he stepped down from the ladder. “You're here
early.”
“I thought you might need some help
setting up, but looks like you're done.” Clad in a dull grey
uniform that was completely different from the blue and green out
that Harry had seen him in before, Iwashi looked between Harry and
all the decorations. “Did I pay you enough for all this stuff?”
“Yeah,” Harry said. “But you can
always give me a bonus if you feel like it.”
Iwashi huffed as he put down a box of
items that he had brought. “You need to raise your prices if you
can make a place look this fancy.”
Harry shrugged. It wasn't really that
fancy. He had just changed the colour of different things to match
one single colour theme of navy blue. He hadn't even tried to make
the items look like real expensive decorations. “I did bring a lot
of stuff with me to Konoha.” Taking a look round to see that
everything was done, Harry nodded and said, “There are drinks in
the cooler. Sake is over on that table. The just brought the food in
a little while back but it will stay nice and warm for a few hours. I
kept the cake in the box to protect it until it's needed.”
Iwashi nodded as he took in everything
that Harry pointed out. “Got it.”
“Then, I'm off,” Harry said as he
rolled up his sealing scroll. “I'll be back tomorrow afternoon to
clean up.”
“You're not staying to see Raidō's
reaction to all this?” Iwashi asked.
“He'll be more comfortable without
having a stranger here,” Harry said as he left the party location.
As he dropped into his bed later, Harry hoped that the party would be
a success.
The next afternoon, Harry entered the
party location expecting a disaster zone, but other than a lack of
any leftover food or drink, the place was relatively tidy. In fact, a
man that Harry didn't recognize was pulling down some of the
decorations.
“Are you the party planner?” the
man, clad in the recognizable blue outfit of a Konoha ninja, asked.
Harry nodded.
“I'm Raidō,” the ninja replied.
“The person for whom this party was?”
Harry asked. “Why are you cleaning up after your own party?”
Raidō shrugged. “There was nothing
else to do while I waited for you.”
“Oh,” Harry said with a wary tone.
“Did you want something?”
“Iwashi said you did all this,”
Raidō waved a hand around the room, “by yourself.”
Harry nodded.
“That,” Raidō cleared his throat.
“Thanks.”
Feeling just as awkward, Harry said,
“It's my job.”
“The dedication and the details of
everything here, it's obvious that you put serious thought and effort
into all this.” Raidō hummed and looked around. “This is
actually the first party I've had that wasn't just eating out at a
restaurant.”
Harry didn't know what to say to that.
“I've been missing out, everyone's
been missing out,” Raidō said with a shake of his head. “We all
need more parties like this.”
Harry gaped at the man. “Really?”
Raidō nodded. “I know quite a few
people who are long overdue for parties. They'll enjoy it just for
the chocolate coins. They were nice but it must have been tough to
put my name on all of them.”
“Chocolate is actually very easy to
work with,” Harry replied. It was true. One spell was all it took
to shape chocolate into whatever he wanted.
“And the edible gold paint you used
on them?” Raidō asked. “Is that one of your trade secrets?”
Harry hadn't considered making it a
trade secret until now. “It is. Have to have something unique to
make sure that people keep hiring me later on.”
“I don't think you'll have any
shortage of parties to plan and prepare.”
“Do you have any complaints?” Harry
asked. “Or something you think I can improve for any party request
I get next?”
Raidō tilted his head as he looked
around the large room with thoughtful eyes. After a few minutes of
contemplation, he said, “The balloons. They were too easy to pop.
Genma got all the extra chocolate coins from them and started the
poker game with too much money.”
Harry pressed his lips to stop himself
from laughing at that complaint.
“Can you modify the balloons to take
a hit from a senbon?” Raidō asked. “I know it must have been
hard to modify them to pop without the usual loud sound. Adding a
completely different modification on top of that can mess up what you
have... but if you can do it, it'll be amazing.”
“I can try,” Harry said after a
moment of thought. “But what is a senbon?”
The man blinked at him and then with a
slight curl of his lips that made the weal-like scar on the left side of his face stretch up, he reached into a sleeve and pulled out a long
needle.
Harry stared at it for a long moment.
“Maybe I'll just provide trick balloons.”
Raido snorted as he hid the senbon back
in his sleeve. “Whatever makes Genma less of a smug asshole. Wait,
has anyone booked your next party?”
“No,” Harry said with a cautious
tone.
“Good,” Raidō said, “Because
Aoba's birthday is coming up...”
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Harry: Makes chocolate coins for a party.
Ninja: This is too much! Also, it's time to play poker.
Konoha is going to become the party village of the world, one chocolate coin at a time.
Polar
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