Ikigai

Chapter 14: My Bad, Your Bad

"Ah, good. Start bracing supports every 5 feet with the lumber you found-"

"-and the pipes?"

"-stick the pipes wherever you find a hole large enough to fit them. I'll take care of the rest."

"-and Cho-san, get me the numbers on those last two nuggets, I have a feeling they're going to be good," Kintsugi said as she turned to her again. 

Cho had been staring. Kintsugi was a good leader but that only served to make her feel slightly alarmed. 

Here was a madwoman and she called her a leader.

Kintsugi walked up to another section of the now smaller mine, and in one swing dug the whole end of the pickaxe into the wall.

"Cho-san, I do believe we've done it."

She was smiling like crazy, eyes bright and excited, sweaty even from all the work they'd done in the past few hours. 

"Not bad for my first day at work, huh?"

"Kintsugi,...I do like money...but I would also very much like to keep my life, thank you very much."

"I hope so. I'm going to need you to stick around more."

"Why does that sound like it's going to be dangerous for me?"

"Don't worry, I have bodyguards."

"I didn't see any of them try to rush in here to help," Cho grumbled.

Kintsugi's eyes crinkled in amusement, walking towards the entrance with a slight skip in her step. 

"Oh, could you tell the workers I need to meet with them outside?"

"Outside?"

"Like I said. I have a solution," Kintsugi said with a wink. 

----

"Same time tomorrow?"

It was the end of the day and they had finally cleaned up her mess. It was also the end of a very long disaster for Cho. 

"For my sanity's sake, I hope you don't end up killing us."

"Don't worry Cho-chan...can I call you Cho? With my plan and your workers. We'll have the system up and running in no time."

"Uh-huh," Cho nodded, her forehead creasing in doubt.

"Oh look, there's my nanny!"

It was the end of the day and a grey pineapple head could be seen in the distance. 

"Thank goodness," Cho said jokingly.

"Or at least one of them. It gives a new meaning to the whole 'woods have ears and fields have eyes' kind of thing," Kintsugi said as she waved her hand around.

They were well aware that they were still being watched.

At least with Kakashi, they wouldn't have as many eyes or ears present. 

"Well, you tell him that the next time you have a mental idea, he's covering medical."

"On his tab. Got it."

Kintsugi gave a small wave goodbye as she turned to walk towards the waiting shinobi.

"How'd it go?"