Being a gatekeeper - now this was life. Takashi had been sitting by village's gates for an hour already and no one had passed yet. Well, at least he hoped so. It would be terrible if someone had sneaked out and Takashi's ear or nose wouldn't have picked it up. Perhaps the young shinobi was relying on his senses too much. But who cared, Takashi was sitting in front of table and drinking black tea. This tea kept him very aware and focused. And it kept his body warm.
There were a few filling forms and a pen on the table. Takashi knew exactly what forms were in which stack. It would be a real shame if some bully came by and would mess up the papers. Then Takashi would have no way of telling which papers were meant for citizens leaving Konoha, and which papers were for people entering Konoha.
At a job like this, Takashi could allow himself to slip in a few daydreams. The first problem he resolved in his mind was - why is no one passing him. The people who come in Konoha the most are traders. Perhaps most of the traders had already done with their business yesterday or were planning to do business in Konoha tomorrow. That sure was a relief, since Takashi had no way to see if there were any drugs in carts of goods. He then would need to make a long inspection where he smelled everything that the trader intended to sell in Konoha. But what would the boy do if the trader would not cooperate? Call for Konoha's military police force? He didn't even know anyone who worked for the police force. Actually, why didn't any Nekomata work there? Nekomatas who inherited cat's nose would be very helpful to detect drugs smuggled in by traders. And catching those criminals shouldn't be too hard for Nekomatas either. Maybe Takashi should enter police force when he becomes chuunin? That sure sounds like a good idea if he gets to regularly sit by the town's gate and just sip tea.
Although tea drinking doesn't get boring, this wasn't the most comfortable place for relaxation. Takashi still had to spend here several hours. He was longing for someone to come and relieve him from his duties.
393 words

At first it might've seemed sad, that no one passed through the main gate. No traders, no shinobi travelers, no shinobi going on missions or academy students going on trips. Only a few breezes of wind went through the gate, unauthorized, of course.
The cup Takashi was holding in his right hand started to empty. There still was some hot water, to refill the cup, but before he could take the last sip, someone called for him: "Heeey, don't you see me?!" it was a feminine voice that originated just a few meters in front of him. How did the girl get there? Takashi was supposed to hear steps from anyone who closed in. Perhaps the girl was a shinobi like himself. Or perhaps Takashi was losing his touch.
"Yeah, yeah," Takashi lied about the 'seeing' part, "so, are you entering or leaving?"
"You silly!" the girl started chuckling, "you were sleeping, weren't you! I thought I could slip pass unseen, but then I noticed your eyes open and staring at me. Anyway, I'm going to visit my grandmother in the nearby farmer village"
"So are you bringing anything to her?" Takashi had no way of knowing if the girl had a basket or she was empty handed, so he just nodded his head and pointed his eyes to the stacks of paper forms, in hopes that the girl would be honest and tell the truth.
"Yeah, I'm taking some fruit to her, which I have in this basket. Do I need to fill in a form in this case?" the tone in her voice took a worrying note.
The answer bothered Takashi. He didn't smell any fruit. There was something odd about this girl. Takashi hadn't heard her, she had attempted to sneak out. It would make sense if she was a kunoichi or at least an academy student. In those cases she could be sneaky for whatever reason, but there was no way she could mask the sweet smell of fruit. "What kind of fruit? Come closer, show me," Takashi demanded.
The girl had no choice so after a few seconds of hesitation she came closer and with charming voice said:"Fresh apples! Sorry, but you can't have any!" she added predicting that Takashi would like to have a taste.
There's no way apples smelled like that. Rotten apples would have a strong foul smell. Fresh, new apples would have a faint smell of sweetness. Ripe apples had a stronger smell of sweetness. What was in the girl's basket were none of those. Although he was denied tasting, he swiftly picked one of the round fruits out of the basket. "Hey, don't!" the girl nervously said, but it was too late. The apple Takashi was holding was no apple. Maybe it was round, maybe it looked like an apple, but it was way heavier than any fruit. It could even be a fuse bomb that Takashi was currently holding in his palm.
There was no need to smash the object and see it's contents (though the boy couldn't really do that), and there was no time to say "Hold it right there!" even though Takashi really wanted to say it. The girl was already on run. This time Takashi could clearly hear her every step and he was on chase. He was focused and closing in on the girl very fast. She was still holding the basket, Takashi could hear the false fruit inside hitting the woven walls.
When Takashi was just a few meters behind her, he decided to jump high in the air, reaching almost 10 meter height, and forcing his weight upon her. He landed with his feet on the girl's shoulders and pushed her onto the ground. She didn't lose her consciousness since Takashi didn't weigh very much to execute a perfect takedown, but it worked. She was on the ground, the basket's contents had spilled and the genin had captured a criminal (hopefully it was not a misunderstanding).
"Now you are going to act good and I'm taking you to the administration building," he decided it was best to let his peers take care of this situation further.
713
[Exit]
Total words count: 1106
C rank mission 1000/1000
Leftover: 106