Spoiler:

Kaiji Kyudoka had first heard the rumours while he sat nibbling on some dango in the back of a local dumpling restaurant. Typically, the bespectacled archer paid little to no mind to the chirping of the various birds in his vicinity, but what perked up the boy's ears upon hearing this was mention of "a 200 ryo reward." Kaiji's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his face turned flush taking on a similar shade to his dark pink hair. 200 ryo is a fairly sizable amount, he thought. Think of all the sweets I could purchase with that. The teen took a deep, cacophonous breath through his nose and stood up from the table he had been seated at. Dango in hand, Kaiji approached the men whose conversation had piqued his interest and began to speak. "200--I mean--a lost family, you were saying? What's that all about?" One of the men eyed the lithe Kyudoka kid with a hint of suspicion, but reiterated what he was saying to his companion nonetheless.

"Well, like I was sayin', I heard from my sister-in-law's cousin's ex-boyfriend who works as a janitor in the hospital that a raggedy-lookin' man done wandered in through the front door of the place claimin' he'd been campin' with his family, wife and two kids, out in the local forest 'bout a couple miles outside the village, and somethin' happened that caused 'em to get separated, and so far he's the only one that's made it out of there." The man cleared his throat. "And now, 'pparently the village is offerin' a 200 ryo reward to whoever can find 'em and bring 'em back out of there alive."

"Shiiieet," the man opposite him spoke up, "If they still is alive. Hell, I reckon they done been eaten by bears or starved or somethin'. I wonder how much the village'd pay for just their corpses?" he said, causing the both of the buffoons to crack up in a fit of laughter.

By the end of their story, they'd notice that the teen who'd asked the question had already exited the restaurant and was on his way to the village's dense treeline. "Hmm," Kaiji mused while trekking through the undergrowth, eyes on the lookout for any signs of disturbance or anything unnatural, "While I wouldn't exactly call myself empathetic, those two were truly heartless. I'll find this man's family, no doubt, and not just for the ryo." Konoha's forest was immense, and it quickly became apparent that it would have been beneficial to visit the man in the hospital in order to get a bit more information on the mission before he ventured all the way out to the middle of nowhere with nothing but a story to go on. "I'm sure I--huh?" At Kaiji's feet was a collection of bones, some with bits of flesh and sinew still attached, strewn across the small clearing he'd found himself in. "N-not good," he stuttered, the faint decadent odour of decay worming its way into his nares. He bent over and inspected what appeared to be the bone from a limb and was relieved to discover that it belonged to some sort of ungulate, a deer most likely. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Kaiji sighed shallowly and continued forward, failing to notice the scraps of torn clothing that lay nearby.

Further ahead, another clearing appeared, only this time, the evidence was more evident and Kaiji took note of signs that people had been here immediately. A pitiable fire pit and a makeshift lean-to stood at the center of the field. "Intuitive, to say the least. They may be alive after all, better investigate further though." Walking up on the scene, Kaiji sniffed at the air, pawed through the rudimentary campsite like he was a tracking hound. Sadly, he was not, and this made gleaning clues as to the family's whereabouts difficult to say the least. "Gah! I'm getting nowhere, and if I keep going, I'm gonna end up just as lost as these poor people." At once it hit him. "Why, oh why did I not think of this before?" he said, sending a surge of chakra to the bottom of his feet and beginning to scale the tallest tree he could find. "Duh, hawk eyes." After he had made it to the tree's top, the world around him was revealed in full. "You know, for nature, this isn't half bad. Nice work, Lords Hashirama and Madara," Kaiji said, having learned of the village's founder's names in a book he'd read a while back while lurking about the local library. "Alright, back to the mission. Takamegan!" Golden rings formed in Kaiji Kyudoka's eyes. The xanthous ringlets around his pupils were a sign of his clan's Dōjutsu, Takamegan, the eyes of a hawk. "Enhance," he yelled, vision zooming in to double the sharpness of normal eyes. He scanned the area with the utmost care, paying attention to each and every possibly relevant detail. Then, in a grove to the west, he spotted them. Sure enough, a woman and two children were huddled there. "There!" Kaiji cried, descending the tree and sprinting in their direction urgently. He reached the lost family in less time then he thought it would take, feeling out breath but grateful that he had located them. "I," huff, "I'm from the village," puff, "I'm here to take you home." Kaiji gathered his thoughts and caught his breath. "Your husband," he gestured toward the woman, "And your father," he said, referring to the kids. "He's in the village's hospital. He's okay, I think, and very worried about you. Please, come with me."

The family was on the verge of tears, but Kaiji assumed they were too dehydrated for tears. He flashed them a shaky smile, not used to the facial expression but giving it his all. Slowly, but with the last bit of determination they had left in them, the woman and two children followed Kaiji Kyudoka through the maze-like forest and finally to the village's towering gates. "You're home," Kaiji spoke, choking back tears of his own. Why am I getting so emotional about this? I thought, I mean, originally I was just doing it for the ryo, but, what is this feeling? I don't like it. He would continue to feel this way as he escorted the group to the hospital, unable to shake the strangeness of it all. Receiving the father's gratitude hollowly, Kaiji went to collect the mission's payment, and while counting the 200 ryo, tears streamed down his face in rivulets resembling circuitry. His eyes stung with the onrush of this seemingly newfound emotion. The Kyudoka boy let out a choked sob and fell apart then and there. "I don't understand, ugh!" he wept, face a mess. "This, I did it for this, nothing more, nothing more!" Kaiji lashed out with angry confusion. The money cascaded through the air as it left his hand, bank notes saturated from his outburst.

Kaiji Kyudoka sat wallowing for a long time afterward. Emotion, sadness, empathy, even happiness? What did it all mean? Overhead, stars twinkled in and out of view. The archer exhaled shakily, bereft of any more tears and confused as all hell.

[EXIT]

WC: 1259 - 1000[C-Rank Mission] = 259 remaining.

Stat upgrades from remaining words:
(PER) E-0 ~> E-2 [75 + 150 words = 225 words and 0 ryo]