Missing Lunch mission

Mission:

Spoiler:

Sanji looked at the file, then back to the Hokage, then back to the file. He was a bit confused and annoyed at this mission. Yes theft is wrong and the individual should be brought to justice, however the whole thing about being hush-hush about it was just silly. If he knew who the person was, he could most likely deal with the situation himself, given the fact that it seemed a little absurd for an S-rank criminal to be reduced to petty larceny. He didn't question it, however, and merely handed back the file before leaving to complete the mission. He had taken a mental note of those affected and went to get their take on things and ask them questions. It took nearly an hour with the long-winded individuals he had to meet up with speaking in great length over such petty things, it was beginning to give him a bit of a headache. Still, he avoided expressing his discontent for the whole situation. Still, it seems that food theft has been a rampant problem here in the village, first with their supply shipments getting tampered with and now this, was someone really trying to starve them? It would be the perfect way to soften them up for invasion, so it was a viable tactic, however cruel it may be. For now, Sanji tried to establish a common thread among all these thefts in order to hopefully find a potential next victim and catch the thief in the act. His luck couldn't be more perfect.

As he was casually walking along he noticed a shadow brief obscuring him from the sun's rays for an instant. Given that this is a ninja village and often the ANBU would travel quickly, criss-crossing the village as they patrol, something about this particular instance gave him pause, and he decided to quietly pursue who the shadow belonged to, seeing the individual bounding over rooftops. He couldn't make out what he had until an apple fell from the bag he seemed to be carrying. This had to be the culprit as he could hear the irate yelling of a shopkeeper not too far away. Sanji did his best not to make it seem obvious that he was tracking the fellow who he believed to be the food thief. All sorts of thoughts began running through his mind; for one thing, it had to be a villager, he really didn't think an outsider could operate so freely inside the village without the sensory barrier giving him away and the ANBU dispatching him with unwavering prejudice, or at least capturing him for questioning. He also wondered if this was a question of poverty, an issue near and dear to his heart. He didn't believe in a world like theirs that there was any excuse for even one person to starve, so he honestly hoped that wasn't it, otherwise he might be torn on how to enact a solution.

Nevertheless, Sanji soon watched as the fellow went into a dark alley, the telltale crunch of glass under the culprit's feet giving Sanji plenty of information. His suspect's paranoia was intriguing. Sanji waited for him to disappear inside a door you wouldn't even notice being there unless you looked for it, and slowly he approached. Before reaching the glass, he formed 3 seals - Rat, serpent, hare - and kneaded his chakra to execute a new jutsu of his called the Ghost Step. On the ground he projected chakra, which he walked on, above the broken glass, leaving neither visual nor audio clues as to him being there. He peered into the room through a slit and saw only the scrawny fellow in the cloak he had pursued earlier, and a much fatter individual who seemed to be ordering the scrawny fellow around. This complicated things, and it really made him wonder if he should get anyone else involved in this, as few other shinobi held the kindness that Sanji did, despite looking like one of the coldest, most calculating ninjas among the whole force in Konoha, he truly had a caring heart and often tried to help those he was tasked to bring to justice, not simply succeed in dealing them a crueler hand than what they got that led them to their criminal activities in the first place. So, for his part, he quietly snuck away and went to report his findings, as well as planning on asking that he be allowed to question the two before anyone else gets to them, frankly he was disgusted by the cruelty displayed even in this, a village reputed for its kindness.

[ word count: 773 ]

Approved.