Petty Thief (Catching the Thief D-Rank)

Salzem wandered through town, wondering where to look first. In a village this big and with a population this large, it would be easy for the thief to disappear, ninja or not. The village was strangely quiet today, Salzem only encountering the odd person walking home with full grocery bags. Salzem tightened his new ninja headband which hung around his throat. Salzem leaped to the roof tops, hoping to get a better vantage point. Then he heard something. It was faint but he thought he heard yelling off in the distance behind him. He moved in on the sound quickly, hopping from roof to roof to save time. As he approached, he saw a man running from a woman. The woman was screaming "Thief! Thief!" The man was holding a large brown sack of... things? No matter. This must be the thief. With one mighty leap, Salzem flew over the two and landed in front of the thief, hands raised. The thief dug in his heels and ground to a halt. The woman stopped running as well, staring at Salzem's mask. At least she stopped screaming.
"We don't have to turn this nasty." Salzem said approaching slowly. "Just drop the goods and come with me." The thief was having none of that. He glanced from side to side before seeing an alley to his left. He tossed the bag at Salzem, who caught it, stumbling back a few steps. The thief ran down the alley quickly, leaving Salzem in the dust. He quickly lowered the bag to the ground and leaped up on the roof beside the alley. This man moved fast! Salzem ran across the roofs, finally getting ahead. He jumped down, casting Clone jutsu along the way. two clones Appeared in smoke as Salzem fell and they landed in front of the thief, breathing slightly labored.
"You really don't know how to make it easy on either of us, do you?" Salzem said. Salzem and clones took a step forward. As he did so, the man pulled out a knife from his back pocket. A Kunai knife! How did he get that? Salzem looked quizzically at the thief for but a moment. He lunged at Salzem sloppily, knife aimed at his face. Salzem stepped out of the way grabbed his knife arm and flipped the man on his back, using his momentum against him. The thief grunted, pain obvious on his face. He got to his feet, shaken. He made another lunge. Salzem sent his clones ahead and the knife struck them. They disappeared in smoke. Salzem leaped again, making sure he wasn't there when the thief came through the smokescreen. As Salzem predicted the man broke through the screen, confused. He obviously expected his attacker to be on the other side. Salzem landed behind him and struck a foot into the place where the lower leg meets the upper. The man gasped and fell to one knee. The thief's arms went up as he went down. Salzem swiped the knife from the thief's hand and held it so that the point was at the back of the thief's head. Salzem sighed, catching his breath. He stared down at the thief who was now glaring at Salzem, head turned to face him.
"Now..." Salzem said. "Will you come quietly?"
(551 words)

Salzem lowered his knife once he realized that the thief was no longer a threat. Salzem looked around the alley for something that he could tie up this man with but found nothing. He tossed the kunai to the side. He wouldn't need the weapon any more.
"Stand." Salzem said, tensing. If the thief tried anything, he would be ready to throw himself at him. But he did nothing other than what Salzem asked of him. He stood, hands in the air. Salzem pushed his back with his hand. "Move." Salzem commanded. He did so. They walked back out into the barren streets of Konoha. What is this? A Holiday? Salzem thought to himself. The streets were hardly ever so empty. The thief noticed Salzem's attention was divided and exploited that. Before Salzem could react, the thief turned quickly and landed a solid punch on Salzem's mask. Salzem fell to the ground, stunned by the sudden attack and the force of the blow. The thief ran, faster than he did before, making what seemed to be a mad dash toward one building. It seemed to be more of a shack than a house, small and inconspicuous. Salzem, got to his feet shakily, head still throbbing from the force of the thief's punch. He may be clumsy, but he hits like a bear! He ran after the thief. He would not botch up his first mission! As Salzem closed in, he saw the thief enter the shack via the front door. Salzem tried opening the door as well. It was jammed. Crap! He observed the windows on either side of the shack and considered his options. He could break in the window but that would only end up in self injury and unwanted commotion. Then he smiled. Perhaps a little trickery would get him out of his rabbit hole. Salzem went to and angle of the house where the windows could not see and weaved signs for the Clone jutsu. A poof of smoke appeared in front of Salzem and revealed his clone. Salzem sent the clone to circle back around the house to make it appear that he was still looking. Once the clone returned, he made it move and walk away from the shack, head lowered as if he failed. Once the clone was out of sight, Salzem heard the door open quietly. Salzem moved quickly, catching the door with a hand and ripped it out of the person's hands. His face and body was obscured by shadow but Salzem was sure it was his target. He pushed the person back in and shoved him near a window where he could see his face in the light.
"Now," Salzem began. "Try to escape me again and I'll..." he did not complete his sentence. The person in the light was not the man he was looking for. Heck, it wasn't even a man. The person who stood before him was a woman with long brown hair and blue eyes. She looked at Salzem with a look of motherly fury. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the shack was filthy on the inside. It was old, broken, poor. He also saw children. 2 children covered in soot and ragged clothing hiding in a corner with another man.
"What the..." Salzem whispered. He identified the thief amongst the children, shielding them from Salzem. Salzem stared in disbelief. What is this? What's going on here? Salzem's stare was only broken when the door shut itself. He blinked. This isn't right. Salzem thought. Lord Hokage, what did I get into? Salzem had a job to do and stepped forward toward the thief. The sooner he got the thief behind bars, the sooner he could get out of here. He raised his arms, showing he meant no real harm.
"Listen," Salzem vocalized. "I am here, for that man." he pointed at the thief. "He is a thief and he will face judgement." He stopped moving when the man was within arm's length. "I will not harm you," Salzem said, addressing everyone. "But if you make my job harder, then I will have no other choice." Salzem looked down at the children. They had looks constantly shifting from anger, to fear, to disbelief. One of them spoke.
"You can't take daddy!" he cried before the thief hustled the kid behind him. This just keeps getting worse doesn't it... Salzem squatted down so that he was at eye level with the kid. His face mask seemed to scare the kid, as seen by him snuggling his face closer to his supposed father.
"I have to." Salzem said. "He's a took a lot of things without permission." The other kid didn't speak but her eyes said it all. She was fearful and didn't want her daddy to go. He looked at the woman who he presumed was the mother. Her fury left her. She now had a resigned look on her face. The thief also looked resigned. He stood up and gave his children both a hug. Salzem looked away. Not because he was shaming them, but because he doesn't think he can keep his composure if he watched. He heard crying, from all four of them. When the tears ceased, the man offered his arms for binding. Salzem looked around the home and saw some old rope piled in the corner. He retrieved it, cut it to length, and tied his wrists. Salzem led him outside where he could swear that he still heard crying coming from the shack.

Salzem walked slowly behind the thief, thinking about what happened in the shack. Salzem had torn a family apart. He knew it was for the good of the village. And yes, what this thief was doing was wrong, but he didn't have a choice! His life was one of poverty and anguish so he had no choice but to steal, and here Salzem was, being the righteous harbinger of justice. The thief was not longer putting up a struggle. He must have come to the conclusion that there was no point in fighting the inevitable anymore. It was still a long walk yet to the delivery point. Maybe he could get some understanding about the man's predicament. 
"Do you have a name?" Salzem asked. The thief didn't respond for a couple of seconds.
"Arad." The thief said. It was not a name he heard often. At least, not around here. Salzem tried thinking of other ways to form his next question but kept coming to the same conclusion. Oh well, he will just say it then.
"How?" Salzem asked. Arad turned around and stared at Salzem in confusion.
"What?" he asked.
"How did you end up... Like that?" Salzem said. Arad turned around and lowered his gaze. He didn't really think that Salzem had the right to ask but before he could bite his tongue and say nothing, the words just spilled out of him.
"We were once part of a small town out to the west, in between the land of Wind and Fire." Arad explained. "We were prosperous. We had food, water, money, shelter! Bandits came and burned out town to the ground. We managed to escape to Konoha where we tried to making a go of it." The delivery point was in sight but Salzem wanted to hear what he had to say so he slowed his walking pace as did Arad.
"I did not know how your village of... 'ninjas' worked. All the skills I had picked up from my home town, weaving clothes, farming, smelting things into statues. All these skills could not land me any work. We soon went broke. I had to resort to thievery for my family to get by." Salzem nodded his head in understanding. It made sense. Those smaller towns popping up all over the place seemed to be quite clueless on how the world worked. They arrived at the delivery point where two chunin were waiting.
"We'll take it from here kid." One of them said. Salzem handed Arad over to them quickly. Salzem just wanted to head home now. To go home and rest. The chunin took the thief and began walking away before one of them stopped and looked back.
"Oh, yeah. go report back to the mission center for your reward." the chunin said. Salzem had forgotten about that part. He sighed and stretched. Salzem was tired and he had a lot to think about. He started walking back toward the mission center, looking forward to telling his father all about his first successful mission. As he walked, he thought about all that happened. The chase, meeting the thief's family, hearing his story. He wondered if all his missions would be like this. If so, he was going to have to toughen up.

(exit)
(Final Word Count: 2022)
(Claiming 1000 ryo and 3 AP)