Recovering the Stolen Jewels:

A night off? Hardly. It was his last chance to get in with the madame he needed to endear, and he was apparently failing miserably. Or rather, she just didn't need as many new people as had been advertised, so the competition was harsh. He was holding a special token in his pocket, one that would make it possible for a messenger dispatched by the madame to find him anywhere within the bounds of the city; and he was really hoping he'd end up face to face with one by sunrise. He had until then to either receive a message, or the token would disintegrate into little more than dust on the wind. Hnnn, nervous energy; he needed to burn it off.

So what the hell, might as well make some more coin while he was at it. He wasn't going to sleep tonight anyway; and since he'd been running some small, easy missions for the village recently, his standing had risen just a hair, which was enough to let him run some more important ones. Nothing crazy, but general tracking and recovery of civilian targets. He'd found that he rather liked the little police station/bounty board near his inn, and the village ninja there were decent enough people. They were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and he was willing to return the favor because of that. So, he'd wandered in a bit after dusk, and spent a good while staring at the board; there wasn't much, he'd been working it over pretty well recently, and little outposts like this didn't get updated often, but there was a new posting. Something about a thief targeting rich civilians and a good bounty to bring him (her? Them?) in. Wonderful. He had the tracking abilities to do something like this; given his sensory focus for his main job, and his childhood of hunting small critters to survive, he was a fairly decent tracker, so he figured this wouldn't be too hard. So long as the thief (thieves?) wasn't (weren't) ninja of significantly more skill than him, he'd be fine.

Given what he'd been able to gather from the ninja and civilian police following the case, the thief had a bit of a repetitive nature when it came to timing, they would follow the same pattern before and after every heist; which made it so strange to him that no one had caught him. Although, that was likely as much from the lack of reward before as it was the existence of one pushing people to care now. He wasn't so much moved by the reward; money was a tool for him, one that he didn't need much of; so he was mostly doing this to kill time and get things done.

Given the pattern that had been establish, tonight would be the night the thief would be meeting with a fence; it was always a random back alley fencer and never some semi-legitimate pawn broker. It was a sign of some level of intelligence with the thief, not much, but a little bit. Enough to not risk walking into a properly legitimate shop that would turn him in to save their own skin; sticking to the more dangerous, but slightly less likely to turn them in back alley fence. He really didn't see the balance there; a back ally fence was more likely to just kill you and take the goods versus actually pay you, so it really wasn't any better than risking getting turned in and doing a few months of jail time. Then again, given who this thief was stealing from recently, that few months was more likely to be several years, soooo...

Eh, it was still stupid; in his opinion. He was the type to play it safe unless it really paid off to be stupid; and little ever paid off in regards to being stupid. Oh, he'd done plenty of stupid shit in his life, but it had been childish mistakes and the like; never anything that really risked his ability to survive.

So why was he risking himself with Samael?

That was a thought he didn't need at the moment, so he suppressed it and focused on the task at hand. Finding the thief and the fence. That. Not the handsome half-devil that was constantly eating at his thoughts. Nope; not him. Not the one he wanted to follow across the desert and into a random temple with a reputation for insane devotion and even crazier happenings.

Nope, he wasn't smitten; nor was he being stupid and risking everything he'd worked to build over the last few years. Nope.

Denial wasn't just a river in Konoha, after all.

Hah, fun times.

Oh, was that a suspicious looking pair of individuals in a back alley? Glorious!

I mean really... how simple was that. he'd just been walking down the street; the SAME STREET AS THE POLICE STATION at that; and he'd run into them without even trying. Haha!~

Oh well.

Bold as brass, he walked right up to them and in the process somehow lost one of the two. Oh. The fence was fleeing? Whatever, he didn't care. With his eyes, he could easily give a description of the man, so it was fine. He needed to get the other guy more anyway.

Wait, was the fence moving up a wa-... oh, a ninja then. Even better. Not touching that, right now.

"So... since you're sort of pinned... how about you just give up?"

"Back off, kid. You don't know what you're dealing with."

"A thief. Simple."

"Shut it! I don't like this anymore than you do; but a guy has ta feed his family!"

"Be glad you have one. I grew up in an orphanage where the best meal you could have was roasted forest rat that you strangled with your bare hands. I know a thing or two about survival."

"Just get out of my way!" Aaaand he was charging.

Aaaaand then it was stupidly bright. Solar Flare, a wonderful ability to have. Freshly trained, and wonderfully useful. Given the inky darkness of the alley, the ridiculously bright light was enough to cause physical pain, and a momentary stagger; just enough for Haruka to weave the handsigns and start spitting an immensely sticky syrup-like substance from his mouth in quantities that basically coated the other male and had him weighed down so hard that he couldn't easily move. Beyond that, a bit of chakra to the feet so that he could move over the field himself, and he was tying the man up with a thick, braided hemp rope. Haruka was a master of knots, and had the guy tressed up and ready to be taken in before the effects of Solar Flare faded. Add in the sticky nature of the syrup from the Starch Syrup Capture Field, and the man was basically stuck.

The flash of light had attracted attention, with a Chuunin from the mission desk up the road coming to investigate. "Solar Flare?"

"Solar Flare."

"Awesome. This him?"

"Fits the description, and he was with a fence."

"Fence is ...?"

"Took off up the wall."

"Awesome. You see him?"

"Oh yeah."

"Even better. Describe him?"

"I can."

The Chunnin had moved over and was picking through the pockets and such of the thief, finding not only the jewels in question, but a dozen other items that had been reported missing or stolen recently. "Yep, this is him. Alright, come by in the morning and pick up your coin. You can fill the report out then too."

"Works for me. I'mm go take a shower now."

"Same. Thanks, kid."

"Yep."

And he was off. The inn was only a half mild up the road after all, he could get in a shower then wander a bit more. Yeah, that sounded good.

Or it did, until he get inside the main social room of the inn, where the bar and such was, and found the messenger he was waiting for. Glorious. Simply glorious. "The Madame will see you tomorrow. Noon. If you are late, you will lose your slot."

"Understood."

The messenger handed him a second token, one that would get him past the door, and left him alone.

Thank the gods he didn't even pray to that he'd gone out dressed and in makeup. That could have ended badly, otherwise.

Jutsu and chakra:

1440/1000