Shippo smiled as he nodded his head slowly waking up for the new day, and that was a good thing for him. Another day was always a time for more training, and the opportunity to help the village. Tsume was being lazy, but there was not much that could be done about the young pup being so lazy, but he could fix that with enough training. As he moved from his bedroom he headed through his home towards the kitchen where breakfast was already waiting for him. Like all people, he loved food, and breakfast was one of the most important meals of the day after all.

At the table, he found not only breakfast, but there was also a scroll that was addressed to him, and it had the look of an official mission scroll. This was the sign that he needed to see so with the twice his usual gusto and appetite he began to ravenously devour his breakfast nodding his head to his mother with a very grateful look on his face. His mother smiled at him nodding her approval as she looked to not only to him, but also to Tsume who was eating happily.

With his meal finished Shippo rolled open the scroll and began to read over the contents inside of it. The mission was straightforward enough and he nodded his head quickly rolling it back up and jumping to his feet “Come Tsume, we are both going to be needed for this particular mission.” He said rushing from the table “Thank you for breakfast Okaa-san!” he shouted over his shoulder as he made his way out of the house Tsume at his heels as was the usual case.

They arrived at the house of the one who had requested their help in the job today. Upon arriving they found the person working outside in a garden of some kind. This was not unusual around the hidden leaf village a lot of people had gardens, and a lot of people also liked working outdoors. Seeing the individual in question Shippo smiled waving at him with a great smile on his face “Hello there sir! I am Shippo Inuzuka, and I have come to help you!”

The man in the garden looked up to Shippo with a smile nodding his head “Oh hello there! You must be the shinobi that I hired. It is so good to see you!” He slowly rose to his feet moving towards Shippo with a smile that showed how shy he was “Well, uh, you see I am sorry to say that I lost my shoe. I can’t remember where I lost it, but I could use your help. I am sorry to bother the village shinobi about this little matter, but I know that you are willing to help me.”

Shippo nodded his head, but he couldn’t deny that he didn’t actually like the idea of serving as a glorified shoe detector. Still, he would do as he was hired to do. So, he smiled “I would be happy to help. What does the shoe look like?”

The man’s face slowly screwed up in a frown as he shook his head slowly “You know, I can’t rightly recall. I do know that it was a shoe like this one, “ he said wiggling his foot which had a non-descript sandal on it one of a number Shippo was sure. “But I can’t recall anything more specific than that I’m sorry to say.”

Shippo wanted to roll his eyes, but instead he simply smiled looking to Tsume, nodding. The Ninken needed no further encouraging and began to sniff the man as much as possible in order to try and commit the scent to memory. Tracking one scent through the village would be impossible, but they would have to try. Of course, Shippo was part of this team as well so he did his best to inhale as much of the man’s scent as possible before he would nod his head once smiling “We’ll do our best sir!” turning he and Tsume began to track the scent, Shippo didn’t get down on all fours himself, but he and Tsume both sniffing as quickly as they could. Tracking the scent wasn’t very hard at first, but the further away they got from the man’s home, the harder it became. It wasn’t long before the pair lost the scent all together.

They tried for hours to relocate the scent, and find their quarry, but it wasn’t very long before Shippo sighed shaking his head “This is stupid…I suppose we have no choice Tsume. Keep your eye out for a sandal that kind of matches what that man was wearing. If we find a sandal like that and if it is in good condition, then we shall see if it is at least wearable.” Finding a discarded shoe wasn’t hard to do in the least. Tsume managed to track one under a porch and he was able to pull it out. The shoe was a little scuffed, but it was perfect. Shippo smiled as he picked up the Sandal looking it over and finding it to be in useable condition.

With the shoe in hand he headed back towards their employers home. It wasn’t that far from where they were, and when they arrived the fool was so stupid that he was overjoyed to see it “It’s my shoe!” he cried in delight as he took the sandal “I’ll tell the hokage you did a great job! Thanks so much for finding it!”

Shippo shook his head as he didn’t believe he really had earned anything like thanks, but he nodded “It was no trouble. Thank you for allowing me to help.” He said simply before walking away heading home once again.

WC: 989
Training: Perception D to D-2 725
264 Words Discarded