Capture the Prankster (d rank mission)

Mission Specs:

Kotonaru sighed. Another mission again, he had only just got back from a different one and he was being shipped off again into the night, literally. It seemed there was a student who possessed the basic sikills of an academy student, running around putting graffiti everywhere. No building in Konoha had been left untouched. The Hokage’s office had been covered in black paint depicting rude and uncouth acts, a choice foul tem decorating the front door, apparently related to the Hokage himself. Truly daring. There was also the incident in which half the outer village wall was decorated in large flowers. That one must have taken him all night but in the morning nobody was particularly tired, when the entire village Ninja Academy was roused from their dusty classrooms, to stand at attention and their whereabouts the previous night dragged out of them, ninja being sent in every direction to get verification. Other students were not allowed to give each other alibis in case there were multiple students at work. Another incident involved the drawing or painting of body parts all over the Okinaga district. How one fellow could do it all at once was rather disturbingly difficult. Perhaps he could use clones or something. At any rate these were far from the less mean spirited pranks that one of the former Kage apparently used to do.

One night, just to try to catch the wrongdoer, every ninja in the village capable of utilizing jutsu that involved ink in any way, was put together in a room under heavy watch. None of them were able to leave, for any reason, a restroom being accessible nearby under guard. This proved to not help in the slightest, as the incidents continued, the residence of the Hokage himself being decorated with various unmentionable obscenities. That had the entire village speechless when they saw it. Fortunately some of the more proficient water users were entirely capable of removing the paint spattered everywhere.

Apparently some village guards had seen the perpetrator but not in a way such that they could recognize him in broad daylight. The perpetrator was known to wear dark clothing, and a mask that obscured his lower face, similar to a certain Hatake Kakashi, a former Hokage. The perpetrator, about the right size to be a teenager, was assumed to be male despite the baggy clothing, as girls tended to not do that kind of blunt and rather direct attack. It would be difficult to ascertain the perpetrator without extensive stakeouts. The idea had been floated to let the village remain covered in graffiti, with stakeouts being used when there were only a few untouched spots, but few wanted to be surrounded by such profanities. A pity as it might have worked, too.

Stakeouts at random spots had been done each night over the last few weeks but somehow, due to luck or such, they might not have picked the right spot or something, as nobody ever found the perpetrator that way. At best they would catch a glimpse of a figure in the distance leaving an area that was soon discovered to be painted over as well. Unfortunately this was far from enough to identify anyone, and pursuit inevitably ended when the other figure disappeared into the shadows somewhere. Nobody appeared to have any clues as to the person’s identity still despite it being the third week of graffiti covering various buildings.

What to do…. The obvious thing would be to do a stakeout too but without a specific target to watch or a clue on the boy’s identity, nobody would be able to catch him, and Kotonaru truly did not intend to repeat his predecessor’s mistakes. What to do….

He walked over to the training grounds while deep in thought, only realizing his destination when he walked into a post. He fell to the ground, and sat there a while, rubbing his head ruefully. He really needed to pay better attention to his surroundings. He might not have the luxury of uncluttered thought later. He wished he was closer to his goal of righting the wrongs the Uchiha had committed in the past, but… no such luck so far. He was still far, far too weak. If needed he would grow strong enough to obliterate the world and remake it in his image. Assuming, of course, he did not die first. It never hurt to keep track of small details like one’s own potential demise, which tended to keep people from achieving their true objectives.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he walked to the middle of the training grounds, unsure of how to proceed on his mission. He decided to practice the Hiding with Camoflauge jutsu for a while. So he did. He slowly turned parts of his body invisible. It took a lot of concentration to bend the light around oneself, especially since light was extremely fast. It was more like you had to create a field that moved the light, as opposed to trying to move the light itself, as the light was obviously a little too fast to be caught just like that. Kotonaru was unsure how he could check himself, so he thought over that a little. Eventually he hit upon an idea. He formed handseals and utilized a water jutsu, creating a large puddle nearby. Walking up to it, he tried the Hiding with Camoflauge jutsu again, this time looking in the reflection of himself in the water. Indeed, it looked like he had no neck, literally. His body was visible, and not his neck, his head looking at the water, his eyes filled with wonder. It seemed the jutsu was working.

Kotonaru stood up, and looked down at himself in the reflection. Deciding to first practice some chakra control, he began trying to shift around the part of his body that was invisible, moving the field. From his neck, he shifted the chakra upwards, obscuring his head. A headless body stared back at Kotonaru from the water. He burst out laughing, he could use this to really scare someone else, with a little preparation. It took a few minutes for him to calm down and pick himself up from the ground which he had dropped to, he rarely cut loose like that, and it burst out of him like water out of a floodgate.

His hysterics eventually subsided and he stood up again. He needed to finish this entertaining diversion quickly and figure out how to catch the graffiti spraying boy. The jutsu was attempted again, the light bending chakra being moved up and down his body, side to side, from his fingertips to his toes, cliché as that might sound. From there he started trying to extend the range, and while he was not entirely successful, his slightly more precise chakra control made things much easier.

Satisfied with his progress for the time being, Kotonaru left the training grounds, thinking over how he might catch the perpetrator. All the registered ninja were very unlikely to be doing the rude drawings and writing everywhere, one day they had all been given an assignment involving at least 3 other people they would be unrelated too, that left the village mostly bereft of its forces, but the scrawling continued. That eliminated pretty much all the village ninja in one go. It was unlikely to be the work of any visiting ninjas, as the drawings were fairly consistent regardless of who was visiting and when. The academy students were unlikely, as none of them bothered to pull off pranks like that. Perhaps someone had not managed to pass the academy exam, as the skills of the perpetrator were about equal to that of a student.

Kotonaru took a deep breath and walked to the village Ninja Academy. Entering, he asked around if there were any rosters of Academy Students. He waited in the lobby while the staff member looked around, eventually returning with a heavy tome. Opening it, Kotonaru was befuddled. How could anyone expect to be able to read the entire tome when there was not the slightest bit of organization. He should ask for extra pay just because of the many hours he was going to be spending fixing the tome and copying over all the relevant information. The traces of bubblegum were not helping. Neither was the fact that the pages had all been pulled out of the book at one point, being stuffed in randomly, or more likely, in the order they had been picked up in. Kotonaru nearly wept for joy when he found two consecutive year pages still attached, until he realized one had been forged. Wait a sec. Kotonaru checked the year page with the instructors, and none of them remembered that the year detailed had all of those kids passing the exam. One of them appeared to be a latter day Naruto Uzumaki and was unable to pass the test, apparently giving up in frustration, a few years ago. Perhaps it was he that had also disorganized the year book, assuming that the book detailing all the classes, had ever been organized. Notes were scribbled in cramped handwriting, EVERYWHERE.

Well, evildoers or no, Kotonaru could not stand the thought of leaving the tome in such a sorry state. The academy had plenty of spare tomes, so he got one out and began the long dreary task of sorting out all the names. After that, he copied down the notes, using clones to aid him in this task, which, while a good idea, only sped up the process by a few percents. Some things, such as turning the page, or writing, could not go a lot faster even with help elsewhere.

Kotonaru finished, and looked up the suspicious name on the village registry, finding out easily where the place the boy lived was. He walked over there, leaving water clones everywhere as a distraction. The water clones walked and hid in their assigned spots as soon as needed. Kotonaru wanted to be sure he did not apprehend the wrong person but he needed to be sure. He waited on the roof of a nearby building as darkness fell, making sure to keep an eye on the windows and the door of the house. He waited all through the knight, an owl flying into him at one point because he had fallen asleep while practicing his Hiding with Camoflauge jutsu. Well, at least he was getting something right. Despite nodding off several times, there was no noticeable activity from the dwelling. However, there were no new markings, which was also rather nice. Perhaps the perpetrator had been taking a break from his nighttime activities.

Kotoanru had a meal and waited the day through before doing a second stakeout. While he waited, he spent the day eating and practicing his Hiding with Camoflauge jutsu, which by now seemed pretty complete.

Eventually, he went back to the place he was staking out, and waited… and waited… and waited… and eventually his persistence was rewarded. He heard a door creak open, and a dark figure rush out. He followed the shadowy figure, leaving behind water clones to watch the residence in case any more should pop out of hiding somewhere. He pursued the figure to Hokage Rock, where he watched as the figure began pulling out paint to begin his work anew…. Kotonaru tackled the guy, getting paint on his vest in the process. Red paint spilled all over the place, as Kotonaru hauled the prankster back to the office, wiping the paint off that he could, from his vest. He would have to get a replacement it seemed.

Arriving at the office, he was able to requisition a new vest as the original one seemed to be too sticky to be usable now. The perpetrator looked like he would get quite the punishment just from all the people who were glaring at him, having found the source of all the graffiti. It almost made Kotonaru feel sorry for him.

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ttl wc: 2008, claiming 1000 ryo and all wc towards learning Hiding With Camoflauge, and claiming 3 ap

Approved