Spoiler:

Kaiji Kyudoka paced the length of the Village Hidden in the Leaves' main street, indecisive and sweating profusely. He'd recovered emotionally from his last mission involving recovering a man's missing spouse and children, and had made the decision to take on another mission, this time hoping that it would be less daunting in terms of stress. Well, Kaiji was wrong on that front. It started out simple enough, really, it did. Once the mission was approved by his superior's, the Kyudoka boy was given three sealed envelopes, each addressed to a different person, and instructed to deliver each letter to their respective recipients. Easy, right? Kaiji had thought so too, and as he accepted the mail, he rushed hastily out of the administrative building and scurried into the street. But forgetting an important detail, things took a turn for the worse, and again, Kaiji Kyudoka had gotten himself in quite the pickle. Pickles... he thought, eyes squinting as drops of vinegar-sweat wandered into them and gave him a nasty sting. "Hopeless, hopeless," Kaiji waxed with melancholy defeat. The issue was that Kaiji had been so eager to take on this meager mission that he had, in his haste, ended up in a part of Konoha that he was currently unfamiliar with. He hadn't been born in this place, and was still finding it difficult sometimes to navigate the streets and back allies and what not. In essence, Kaiji was lost, and in becoming lost, he'd panicked and gotten sweaty. Herein lied the most severe of the pink-haired teenager's problems. His sweaty hands had marred the names and addresses penned on the letters' fronts, and had left them near-illegible save for a couple of the characters. "Oh dear," Kaiji spoke, stopping in his tracks and making a weak attempt at assessing the situation. "Okay here's, mmh, no, alright, this is what I'll do."

Nearby, a bench for civilians and passerby lie in the midday sun empty, and Kaiji sauntered over to it, legs wobbly with anxiety. Taking a seat and letting loose a shaky breath, he grasped the edges of the topmost envelope and held it with as much steadiness as he could reliably muster, circumstances considered. Before moving forward with the next step of his plan, he sighed. "Heh. These eyes of mine have become an invaluable resource ever since that day I unlocked them. Using them for something like this, is it okay? Would father disapprove? Would he... would he be proud of me for realizing them in the first place?" Kaiji manifested a wistful smile, mouth stretched thin and painful over his teeth and facial muscles twitching in contempt. "Ehem, i-in any case, I'm doing what has to be done. This is the mission I was given, and I intend to complete it." Focusing intently, Kaiji Kyudoka drew chakra from his circulating reserves to his ocular centers. Takamegan! Rings of a vibrant golden hue appeared around his pupils, giving his eyes the otherworldly appearance belonging to the Takamegan, hawk eyes. Using their visual prowess, Kaiji scanned the writing on the letters one by one, now able to pick out details more carefully and deduce the names and addresses written in ink, a feat he had been unable to do before.

"Alright! I've done it, it's clear to me now. Lee, Yen, Kei, worry not, for your mail is en route as of now." Kaiji stood but shrunk back into his seat almost immediately. "O-oh yeah, I forgot that I'm lost. I g-guess I can ask for some directions. Only, that would require knocking on someone's door. What if I disturb them? What'll happen if they think ill of me, think I'm someone shady perhaps? Gods no, what am I to do?" But Kaiji had no other choice, at least none that he could think of on the spot. Heaving a heavy sigh as he was wont to do at times like this, or any time really, he stood once more and deactivated his Takamegan. The golden ring faded from his eyes and returned his vision to what it normally was. Better get to knocking, he thought.

No one answered the first door he knocked on, and the second door was opened by a child whose parents were currently out. One more failure like that and I'm just gonna find these damn places on my own. As it turned out, this time, he was successful in obtaining directions to not just one of the three addresses, but for all of them. The person who had answered the door on Kaiji's third attempt was a frail old gal, who had to have been 10 times his age at least, or so it seemed. She had actually wanted to invite Kaiji in for refreshments, but he awkwardly declined, as his mission took precedent. This woman really knew her way around the village, apparently conscious of every twist, turn, nook and cranny in existence. She claimed that there was no one who could navigate the Hidden Leaf like her, and Kaiji believed every bit of it. Sadly, she had for a while now had joint problems, and thusly could not get around as she once could. Kaiji took pity but she rebuked him for it, seeing the minute changes in demeanor he expressed as he story progressed.

"Ahh, quit it, boy! Ain't no reason to look down on me, I've lived a good life, and got around plenty, heck, back when I was a shinobi, I explored dozens of countries. So cut it out, and let me help ya, you got it?"

"Y-yes, ma'am, of course, ma'am," Kaiji responded, making an attempt to stand up as straight as he possibly could. He listened intently as she told him the whereabouts of each address, which streets to take, which ones to avoid, shortcuts even. By the end of it he was a tad bit dazed, but he'd committed each direction to memory and felt that he could faithfully find them all blind if he'd been forced to. "Thank you graciously, obaasan," he said with a flourish, a bow, and a newfound respect for the elderly. The mission after that point was lackluster if best. Kaiji made his way to each house, one by one, delivering the unopened letters to their rightful recipients and moving on. After all was said and done, he felt a grin tickling the edges of his mouth, until it pulled the antipodes of his lips to the farthest reaches of his face. "I wanna be like her someday. I hope I can live up to that at least."

[EXIT]

WC: 1129

1129 - 600[D-Rank Mission] = 529 remaining

Training Stats:
Perception E-2 ~> D = 525 words and 0 ryo.
529 - 525 = 4 words remaining.