To Catch a Thief (Mission)

Higuto was in need of something to do after a long couple of weeks of hiatus from his usual attendance of meetings and missions. His wallet had grown empty due to this as he looked inside his pouch and saw a lone small moth leave from the opening. He gave a small sigh as he walked to the village's mission board and looked around at the list of missions that he could attend. He thus smiled and nodded upon looking at two that caught his attention: Two D rank missions in need of young genin to perform with the promise of a good amount of ryo for each. He took the two notices and pocketed one of them as he gave the other one a quick read. He had read that, for this mission, someone was going around committing thievery and taking things that weren't theirs from other people. He stretched his body as he knew it was going to take a little bit of work in finding this thief as he pocketed the notice he had taken and decided to simply perform some reconnaissance from the street level. He looked around as he began to walk and blend in with the streets as he looked at people simply going about their business. He'd try and be as incognito as possible to try and not draw too much attention to himself.

He decided he'd start by investigating the places that had suffered from the thefts as he stepped into a shop and saw the store was in the process of trying to put things back together as he looked around and tried to see anything that stood out as a clue that could point him to the culprit. He stepped to one of the displays that once had ninja tools and certain accessories and jewelry as he noticed that the most expensive of the jewelry was the one that had been taken as the glass case was broken through and the jewels were taken. Amateur work. Maybe they made an amateur mistake. He looked around the glass case for clues before looking at the pillow that the jewels stayed upon as he noticed a few strands of fabric, from what he deduced were from gloves, as he took these strands and examined them closely before pocketing it and allowing one of his insects to give it a sniff or three before he would leave the building with it and acting as though he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. He took the strands from his pocket as his insect gave it a once over and was met with the unfortunate news he couldn't get any smell to follow off of it.

Even if a dead end it was still a clue as he kept it out of sight in his pocket for now before continuing down the road to another target place that the thief had hit. He walked into another store, this time a weapons shop, as multiple katanas had been swiped as well as kunais and shurikens as he examined the vacant shelves for any more clues that may have been mistakenly left behind. He noticed something out of the corner of his eye in the corner as he blinked in curiosity and went over to pick it up. To his delight it was one of the jewels that had been stolen from the shop that he had visited previously. He went to work, summoning his insects carefully once again, as he walked out of the shop and hopped up onto one of the nearby rooftops before taking the jewel out of his pocket. His insects were telling him they had hit a jackpot as he smiled and nodded before following their trail along the village in order to get to a place just outside the village.

He followed them as they flew along a trail of smell in order to get to the possible suspect of thievery. He hopped along the rooftops, keeping a watchful eye on the streets as he went, as his insects lead him back down to the street after a few minutes of rooftop hopping. He followed them the rest of the way before they stopped in front of a small, locked, storage building and tried to make their way in through the lock. He took that as a sign that what he was looking for was within this building. But he couldn't just break into another person's property without having justifiable cause. He would first need to get himself some evidence. He walked over to the side of the building as he noticed a small window that he could look through and he thus looked inside to see several boxes, piled into neat and careful piles, as he looked around for anything that would serve as evidence for him to break inside and give the place a real once over.

He then got the idea: have his insects do the searching for him. They were tiny enough to infiltrate and also smart enough to know what to search for as well as collect any evidence he needed as sneakily as possible. He thus looked inside and commanded his insects to search the boxes for anything suspicious as he waited by the window while watching. He watched as insects went inside the smallest of cracks of the boxes and searched inside each one before wriggling out of the boxes and flying over back to the lock of the front door. He walked around back to the lock as his insects crawled out of the lock and flew up to the finger that he held out for them. They relayed to him that the boxes within contained everything that had been stolen which was more than enough for him to thus search the place. He thus took a deep breath and summoned his strength before rearing back and forcing his fist into the door. The wood door stood little chance as it exploded into splinters and thus created an opening for him to walk through.

He shook his hand as he hadn't had to use his strength all that often as he stepped through the opening and looked at the many piles of boxes that were closed off. There were big ones, small ones, wide ones, long ones. He had a lot to rifle through but if his insects were speaking truly then possibly there was stolen items in every single one of these. He thus went over to a box and snapped the nailed down top off in order to get a look inside. He saw the gleam of weapons, tools, jewels, and accessories as he nodded to himself. This was the place. He brought his hands together as he formed a shadow clone and ordered it to go and report the findings to his superiors. They would eventually order a ninja force to come and seize the stolen goods to distribute back out to the right owners and sellers of the products. This would still leave one mystery that he needed to solve however: Where was the one responsible for all this? He walked out of the building as he tried to use his insects to sniff the items inside and track the thief. He decided he'd guard the door as they did in case he caught anybody acting suspiciously.

He felt his insects fly over to him and land on his shoulder as they spoke into his ear and told him that they had found the scent! He smiled wide and nodded to his insects as he allowed them to fly off and he followed them in order to hopefully find the culprit. He had to admit that whoever the thief was they were a bit bold to leave their entire supply of stolen evidence in a simple storage shack. He ran after his insects as they were on the trail through the crowd of people on the streets of Konoha as his eyes darted from person to person to see if there was anyone among them suspicious. He couldn't see anyone looking as though they had anything to hide as his insects told him that they were closing in. It wasn't until they reached just outside of Ichiraku Ramen that his insects told him that the culprit was inside. He took in a deep breath, using his sensory abilities to see if he could try and sense if this person had a high amount of chakra, as he felt plenty of chakra signatures but nothing special. He decided he'd play it cool for now and act like nothing was wrong as he stepped inside while all but one of his insects went back inside him as the lone one stayed on his shoulder.

He saw two people sitting apart from each other, a man writing something in a notepad and a woman who was dressed in a cloak, along with the manager behind the counter. Higuto walked to an empty seat, nodding to the two, as he sat and ordered a bowl as the man and woman ate their ramen. His insect said that the woman was the culprit as Higuto blinked and took a closer look at her as he was surprised to see that under her clothing she was wearing expensive looking jewelry. She had earrings hidden under her hair along with a necklace underneath her robe as he sighed and got up from his seat to walk to her before tapping on her shoulder gently to get her attention. She turned to him as he gave a soft smile and bow.

"Good afternoon, ma'am. I am a Genin of the Hidden Leaf and I am afraid that you are under arrest for theft of over 300,000 ryo worth of jewels, weapons, accessories, etc. Please come quietly as I have no wish to cause a scene nor hurt you."

The woman gave Higuto a look up and down before breaking off into laughter, likely at the humorous situation of a small boy saying he was arresting a grown woman, and getting up from her seat to shove Higuto out of the way so that she could run. Unfortunately Higuto proved too fast for her as he gripped her wrist and twisted it in a way to where the woman toppled over and fell face first onto the ground as he pinned her arms behind her back and kept them in place with his foot as he summoned another shadow clone to get someone. His shadow clone went off to find someone as he looked back down to her sadly.

"I warned you, ma'am. Hopefully your sentence won't be too terrible. But you did steal quite a lot. You have to answer for that."

His clone came back with a Chuunin as they wound up using taking her in for him as he cracked his knuckles and smiled at a job well done. Another Chuunin soon came and gave him a small pouch, saying it was Higuto reward for a successful mission, as he left to help his fellow Chuunin in taking in the culprit. Higuto walked back in the shop as he felt his clones dispel from their jobs as he sat down at where he had ordered his ramen previously and smiled as the manager was just setting his bowl down before him. Hungry Higuto took his chopsticks and began to dig into the bowl as he thought about how great the mission worked out all while the manager, along with the man who was also there and stayed there for the whole event, looked at him as though he was some kind of alien due to the fact that a small child had completely overpowered someone much bigger and older. Higuto shrugged to them as he went back to his meal, savoring each and every noodle, until he finally gave a satisfactory sigh upon finishing his meal, taking a few ryo for the meal and tips and setting it on the counter, and leaving the shop in order to get to work for another mission.

{Exit}

(Completing D-rank mission: Catching the thief)

(WC 2,024)

Claims:

Approved