Missing Cat {D-rank Mission}

Spoiler:

Something happened. For one reason or another the squad assignment that he had was pushed back due to some complications. He wasn't made aware of the reason; just that it was currently a no-go and put on the back burner until later on. The good news was he had recieved his first assignment. He opened up the message scroll which had been delivered to him from a bird messenger, giving a moment before doing so to inspect and fully take in the fact that he had been given his first mission. His two blue orbs took in every detail of the raveled scroll, and as he revealed the parchment; his eyes hungrily consumed the details within. It wasn't what he expected.

The enthusiastic expression turned sour at the revelation of what the mission entailed. It was true that his father had warned him that the initial set of missions he would have to undertake would be elementary and mostly served to cement the fundamentals of task-management and efficiency. That being said, what the mission details revealed to him was that he was suppose to find and return a cat that had gone missing from its home. He was to visit the owner, find out what they knew about the cat and its whereabouts and then locate it. It seemed pretty basic and so he raveled it back up and headed in the direction of the mission-requester's house.

Man, I thought I would be doing ninja work..not a animal service..

He groaned at the thought but as he arrived to the house, he put on a face that was what he thought to be professional and friendly.

As he turned onto the dirt road, one which was located in the residential district, he took a look around him. It made him grateful to be part of a prestigious clan of The Hidden Stone, as compared to what he saw, he lived a very privileged life. He re-opened the scroll momentarily so that he could confirm the street and house number as he walked down the path. As for those who walked around him, he shot an occasional glance and smile and a thumbs up for any younger kid that looked at him in awe. They might have not been so impressed if they knew how silly his mission was. Then again, that was the nature of his existence for the time being. He had to prove himself, and that he would.

He eventually came upon the house. It was dilapidated, not so much that it wasn't livable, but enough to know that a man probably did not live within the house. He inspected the front face of the house for missing windows, or any structural orifice that the cat may have escaped from. He eventually walked up to the door and knocked on it.

No one answered.

He knocked on the door again after several moments of waiting, after which his blue eyes narrowed and he felt somewhat awkward standing out there. Eventually someone looked through the peep hole, unbeknownst to him, and asked who was there. The voice was that of an older woman, her voice frail from age.

"Oh, hello miss! I am from the Hidden Stone military, we are here to answer your request for our help," His voice deepend and boomed with confidence, a veil of fiction that for some reason erected over the adolescent boy. Perhaps he was portraying himself as a great ninja, though the reason he was here alone combatted that facade. She opened the door and he entered with a smile stretching across his face.

The spry Kotoshura took in the visage of the woman herself and the dwelling in which she inhabited. As the door opened, he was blasted with the air and the textures of its aroma--moth balls and age. The woman was in her late sixties at least, or so the young genin thought, and as she walked over to her chair she did so hunched over and slow. Her movements were deliberate and supplemented by a sturdy cane that supported the weight her brittle legs could no longer. He waited patiently for her to find a seat before he began speaking, and meanwhile he inspected the home. He saw family pictures and the like but no one was here to help the old lady. It concerned him. She noticed him looking at the pictures once she had sat and averted her eyes.

"My kids are moved away and my husband has died. It's just little old me," she said sadly as she reached for her tea. As the rim of the tea cup slid between her lips and the tea drifted into her mouth slowly with a slurp, she lowered it and her eyes averted from the boy to a plate of pastries on the table. Perhaps she noticed that Hitotsu's eyes lingered on them for a moment.

"Would you like a pastry? I made them fresh this morning," it was too much for just the old lady. Unbeknownst to Hitotsu, it had been a long time since she had someone visit her inside her house, and with anticipation she had baked the pastries for Hitotsu. He seemed hesitant initially but at her repeated beckoning with a gesture of her hand, he smiled and grabbed one. He thanked her and took a bite of it. He tasted blueberries and could tell it twas freshly made. He had second-thoughts as he chewed on it contently that this wasnt' that becoming of a ninja. Then again, it was so good. He wiped his mouth as they got down to business.

"Thank you for coming, young man. My cat is all I have left, and if I don't have her company, I don't know what I'll do," Her voice came off distressed, that much Hitotsu was perceptive of. He frowned and whipped some crumbs from his lips with the back of his palm before finishing off the muffin.

"I will take care of it, ma'am! Thank you for her hospitality. Can I ask you to give me a description of the cat?" Hitotsu thought of the investigative process that he had learned while in the academy. The five W's, so-to-speak. He knew what he was looking for, but he didn't know any of the others. As she described the cat he gave her a firm nod. He asked her various other questions, from what the personality of the cat was to how it may have gotten out. After he gathered the information he vowed to her that he could return with the cat and he departed from the house.

Regardless of the importance of the mission, he was renewed from the meeting with the old lady that this was a mission that was significant in its own right. He had vowed to serve and protect the village of Stone and its indigenous. Maybe that meant more than physical protection. As he walked through the streets looking for the cat, it was a thought that weighed heavy on the young and idealistic genin.

Before leaving the woman's house, he had asked to investigate around the house to see if there were any openings. It wasn't for sure but if there was a hole on the south side of the building, he would start looking in that direction. He searched around the perimeter and walls of the dwelling carefully. As he moved onto the fourth wall, which was on the west side, he noticed there was in fact a small opening that both a small cat and a rodent could enter through. He took a moment to find something to cover it and did so before he began looking. It was sad that the woman didn't have anyone to look after her, and it upset him to think that her offspring had moved away without so much as thinking about how the woman would fend for herself.

After he patched the opening, he would begin investigating the whereabouts of the domesticated animal. He keenly observed the ground around the opening for anything indicative of the cat. He saw where it landed, as paw prints were created in the dirt and dry earth. He squinted as he focused to see which way the paws were going as they ended after the cat had landed. It was a small cat based on the description and the size of the opening, so the only time it would have made real, discernable prints was when it dropped down from the hole and onto the ground. Nevertheless, he deduced that it had in fact gone south-west--presumably over the fence and through the cluster of houses that were a division within the residential disctrict.

The mission was accomplished and he retrieved the cat after some asserted effort in capturing it. He felt sorry for the old woman and the conditions she lived, but he didn't really know what he could do beyond visiting her from time to time. He thought about this with the long walk around where he had just jumped the fences with the cat. The feline wasn't all that cooperative as they didn't know who Hitotsu was but he would get the cat back, visit with the woman briefly, and then go to report the mission had been complete. He promised to come check on her from time to time and he meant to do that.

/exit