To Catch a Thief

Another day, another mission. He wouldn't mind going out for yet another one as long as it would keep him busy. Whatever the mission would be, it didn't really matter to Minato. The way he would see it, it was just more experience and more practice. So he would approach it the same as he would do with everything else. No matter if it was E-Rank or S-Rank, it had to be done and he would do it with the same mindset as always. Motivated, professional and ready to do whatever it takes to complete it successfully.

Regarding the mission, it would seem that there was a thief wreaking havoc in the village, going around stealing from the citizens. It wouldn't be Minato's first tango with one of those, as his first mission was also when he had to catch a thief. Luckily for him that mission turned out to be handled successfully as he was able to apprehend the culprit. Minato could only hope this one would also know a happy ending.

He would soon check his gear to make sure he would have everything he needed before heading out to the Mission Office. Putting on his shirt, making sure he would attach his katana to his back, his weapon pouches on his left and right. Alright, looking good to go. Grabbing all of his stuff he was leaving his house as he was about to move to his destination. 

He wasn't really in that much of a rush, he took his time looking around the city and the streets to see if he could spot something that could be associated with his upcoming mission. It was a beautiful day as well, so there could be worse things to do than having to look around Konohagakure no Sato. 
He had finally arrived at the Mission Office, it was only a matter of time before he would see what was in store for him.

(WC: 324)

To his own surprise it was none other than Rune who was waiting at the corner of the Mission Office. It seemed that they had paired the two of them up together. Maybe the higher ups had heard about how they were able to rescue the injured man a couple of days ago, which could have led them to believe that they were fit to carry out this mission successfully. Minato thought it wouldn't hurt to be assigned a mission with someone he had already met before. On the contrary, it could only prove to be an advantage as they know what each other was worth in certain situations. After they had greeted one another they would decide to get the mission going. Rune had asked if he was up to speed concerning the objective of their mission. Fortunately he was and so he would confirm to his partner of the day.

"Yeah I know what needs to be done, it isn't my first time catching a thief after all."

As they were leaving the Mission Office to go back outside, it was time to decide on some kind of approach. They couldn't just walk around looking for the thief, they needed to think this through. Minato figured he should take the lead on this since he had more experience than Rune so he should be the one to take responsibility as well. It didn't take him all too long to come up with some sort of plan, which he would share with his teammate.

"We'll start by having a look at the places the thief was spotted before, to see if we can find any clues or description of the one responsible for these crimes. It's safe to say he won't strike twice at the same places so we should investigate the parts of the village where he hasn't been seen before. It also wouldn't hurt to drop by the streets where it isn't as crowded since he might try and take action where there won't be a lot of witnesses who would notice him. With a bit of luck we might be able to catch him red handed."

(WC: 360, TWC: 684)

It was a good sign that Rune shared the same opinion as Minato regarding the best way to approach the mission. After all, the only information they had so far were the places where the thief had committed most of his crimes up to this point. It seemed that it was always the same place that kept being brought up as the area where most people got stolen from. The Okinaga District. One of the most populated places in Konohagakure no Sato and also the place where almost every thefts had taken place. So the obvious thing for them to do was to pay a visit to the Okinaga District, hoping they would find some clues about the thief and how he goes around stealing from the citizens. 

Now that they had reached their destination and had arrived at the district, Minato figured they should look around for possible witnesses who might be able to tell them more about the stealing individual. Even though gathering information was a very important aspect of a shinobi, it was also the part Minato found the most boring to do. But it still needed to be done and even by doing things like this he would be able to learn and get more experience.

As they were walking further into the district he decided to approach some people, hoping they had seen or heard something that could help him find the thief. No sooner said than done he had walked up to a small group of older people, asking them if they heard anything about all the stuff that's been going on, or if they might have an idea of who could be behind all of this. All of them confirmed that there were indeed a lot of incidents happening lately and even one of them told Minato that the thief wasn't afraid of using violence to get what he wants. Thanking the elder for their information he took off, continuing the search for the criminal. They didn't get much wiser but at least now they knew they had to be careful and ready to use force to stop him.

(WC: 356, TWC: 1040)

As he was making his way around asking people for information regarding the recent criminal activities, Minato could suddenly hear Rune yelling that he had found him. He knew that his partner wouldn't just stand still and would surely begin the pursuit of the thief.
Minato remembered the information he received from the elder just a moment ago. It was concerning the fact that the thief didn't hesitate to use violence during his crimes. And now that he was being chased by someone looking to arrest him, it wouldn't be any different. Since he was the more experienced of the two, he figured he couldn't let Rune handle this on his own, so he began his pursuit himself. After all, he did mention he was going to take the responsibility this mission.

Luckily he was able to see where Rune was headed to before he started running after the thief. It was in a dark alley across the street. He figured it wouldn't really make any difference if he went through the alley as well, so he decided to follow the direction of where the alley would lead to, hoping Rune was still in pursuit. Running as fast as he could, Minato would suddenly notice someone who looked exactly like Rune climbing up the wall. He knew that Rune had recently learned the Water Clone Technique, so he figured he made a clone to help in his pursuit. 

As he whistled between his fingers to notify the clone of his presence, the Water Clone was giving him signals of where Rune and the thief were headed. He had been in the district before, so he would have no problem finding the location they were running to. Instead of following the same route they did, he decided to aim for the place where the alley would lead to. If everything went as it should, Minato would be waiting for the thief to arrive. With Rune chasing him behind and Minato waiting for him at the front, the thief would be completely closed in with nowhere to run. Minato could only hope they would be able to avoid as much violence as possible, since they would have the thief completely cornered, hoping he wouldn't start acting like a threatened animal.

(WC: 378, TWC: 1418)

Minato was finally making his way to the other end of the alley. Now all he had to do was wait for the thief to come running towards him so he could intercept him. He figured it wouldn't take much longer since he had been running for quite a while now. Reaching into his weapon pouch to grab one of his kunai so he would be ready for a worst case scenario where he had to fight the thief, Minato was waiting. And waiting. And even more waiting. Something isn't right, something must have happened. Those were the thoughts going on inside Minato's head. Even if they were crawling the whole time they should already have made it to the location he was. Afraid of what might have happened to Rune he decided to start running in the direction the two of them should be.

On his way over he suddenly heard a scream, trying not to think about the worst that could have happened he ran as fast as he could. When he got to the scene, he arrived at the view of a lifeless body laying on the lap of Rune, while holding the head of what surely would be that of the thief. Something must have happened that made Rune throw a kunai at the thief. Maybe it was self defense or his lack of experience caused his aim to be off. Either way he had to get over there to take Rune out of the alley as it seemed he was going in shock.

"Don't worry Rune, everything will be fine."
Minato was doing his best trying to comfort him as he didn't know what Rune was going through at the moment. Leading him out of the alley he would then find someone to take care of the rest.

(Exit)
(TWC: 1721)
Claims: 
- 1000/1000 towards Body Flicker
- 500/500 towards Puppet Art: Ventriloquism
- 1000 ryo
- 3 AP