Mission Card wrote:Mission Name: Lost Pet Chinatsu
Mission Type: Recovery
Mission Rank: D
Mission Goal: Retrieve the lost pet!
Description: Mrs. Fukimoto's dog has run away. Last sighting of the small animal placed it heading towards the Training Grounds. Track it down as fast as you can and be careful, it's surprisingly strong for its tiny size.
Payment: 10,000 Ryo
Requirements: Genin
Mission Card wrote:Mission Name: Dog Walker
Mission Type: Chore
Mission Rank: D
Mission Goal: Walk the dogs
Description: The 'Happy Puppy' Dog Groomers has a group of dogs that need to be taken for a walk, but the manager doesn't have the room to free any of his staff. The Manager is willing to hire someone to take the dogs out for a walk. Be sure to clean up after them if they leave any little messes.
Payment: 10,000 Ryo
Requirements: Genin+
"Listen up everyone!" Ashitaka barked as he paced in front of the dozen or so dogs, who all became incredibly obedient after he offered a prize of a large piece of jerky to the most well-behaved of the bunch. "Ms. Fukimoto's dog, who goes by the name Chinatsu, has recently disappeared! I need you to scout around the area and find the little bastard, ASAP! Of course, I'm not asking you to do this for free! The first dog to find Chinatsu and let me know with a good, strong howl will get... one WHOLE BAG of jerky! Now who's in?"
The dogs all sprang to their feet, barking and jumping and running around in little circles as they wagged their tails wildly. After getting them to calm down again, he drew out a kerchief that Ms. Fukimoto often made the dog wear in addition to its collar, something Chinatsu apparently took issue with seeing as how it was missing and the kerchief was not.
"All right, boys and girls, take a good whiff. This is Chinatsu's scent! If you want to be the goodest boy or girl in all of Konoha, you're gonna find that little rat, pronto! Ready? Set! G- ...and they're gone." Ashitaka went from declaring to muttering as the dogs collectively disappeared like shinobi being sent out on a mission.
"Okay!" he said to himself as he wandered around nervously for a bit. "Here's hoping I didn't just make the biggest mistake in the ten years I've been alive."
At first, he didn't even know which direction to start trying to follow the dogs in, seeing as how they scattered to the four winds on dismissal. Eventually, though, he noticed their trails in the dirt roads of Konoha converging into a single direction as the individual dogs eventually caught onto their quarry's scent and started following it. At almost the exact moment as he noticed this convergence, he heard a series of yippy howls that had to be from the Shih Tzu, followed shortly by the slightly more dignified howling of a Shiba Inu. Eventually all of the dogs were howling in a chorus that he could identify as being varying distances away.
Ashitaka arrived on the scene a couple minutes after the howling started to see the dogs surrounding an abandoned dojo, with some of them trying to crawl under it and barking aggressively at what they'd found. He really hoped it wasn't a squirrel. Whatever it was, though, he was sure they'd never flush it out since they were going at it from all sides, and he could hear it scrabbling around in panicked circles as it searched futilely for an avenue of escape. He called the dogs nearest him to heel, and the "prey" bolted out from that side of the derelict training hall to reveal that it was, in fact, Chinatsu.
The boy dove and caught the little dog which dragged him a sizeable distance as the other dogs chased after them. Eventually though, he dug his legs into the dirt up to his knees, which prevented him from being taken any further. He held on until Chinatsu wore itself out, then freed himself from the ground and started carrying it to Ms. Fukimoto's place. The other dogs started acting up, and it took him a few minutes to remember that he'd promised a bag of jerky to the first one to find Chinatsu.
"All right, all right, I got it, hang on..." he grumbled as he placed Chinatsu down and firmly ordered it to "Sit!" then went about rummaging through his pack until he found a couple bags of jerky. One he tore open and tossed to the Shih Tzu and the other he divided out about as evenly as he could among the other dogs, who luckily weren't very good at math beyond treat > no treat. He heard a distinctly high-pitched and mournful whine and turned to see Chinatsu looking at him expectantly. "No, you don't get any. Treats are for good dogs who do what they're told. You ran away and made us all have to look for you. That makes you a bad dog, so you don't get any jerky."
With that, Ashitaka took Chinatsu the rest of the way home, the little dog whining and moaning so much the whole way that Ms. Fukimoto checked it for injuries and glared at him for making her little angel so miserable. Of course the dog's personality was a vivid reflection of its owner's. She reluctantly stamped his mission card hard enough to dent it so he could take the rest of the dogs to the groomers'.
[Mission Complete: Dog Walker and Lost Pet Chinatsu]
