Mission name: Lost Family
Mission rank: C
Objective: Travel through the lands around the village and rescue the lost family.
Location: Konoha
Reward: 200
Mission description: A man came walking out of the wilds barely alive. He was taken to the local hospital where he reported his family was lost in the wild lands. Find them.
Mission details: The rest of the family is grouped together, wandering aimlessly and completely lost several miles from the nearest road. Once you find them, they will follow you slowly, as they are dehydrated and weak. Just go slowly, and bring them to the village for treatment.

It had been a a nice day as Airi sat leisurely enjoying an iced tea in the shades of a nearby sakura tree when a messenger arrived to get her with an unusual request. Usually, nobody went looking for her, but this time it seemed the shinobi of Konoha had a job with her name on it - to rescue a family that got lost in the Dense Forest. A man had arrived at the hospital, feverish, without water and incessantly ranting about his wife and kids still being out there. He had barely allowed people to take care of him, expecting Konoha shinobi to send out a team to find his lost family members. Though the Hokage wasn't inclined to send a ninja team for this, the Dense Forest remained a dangerous area to those that were not familiar with its wildlife. As Senju and dedicated forest dweller, Airi had been chosen as the candidate for this job.

She had accepted the mission since this was just the sort of jobs that fit her. Woodland striding, knowledge of local fauna and flora, and the know-how of a huntress to take out wild animals should this be required. The only trouble was that the man had precious few information concerning the position of his family members. There was no road and 'all trees kinda look the same, no?' was not something she could work with. It would be up to her to track his footsteps as good as possible and find the people as fast as possible. Having accepted the mission, Airi had left the shadow of the sakura to make some preparations - water, rations, and a self-made first aid kit would be the bare necessities to bring this mission to a success.

With everything ready, Airi had left the Village to make her way towards the Dense Forest. The forest was quite a while away, but the tracks that the survivor had left behind on the road were fresh enough to allow her a quite easy track-back until she reached the beginnings of the forest. There, tracking became harder as the canopy allowed precious little light inside its domain and the wind had played with the environment enough to swipe most of the traces, tricking the lesser experienced trackers easily. As the traces became harder to distinguish and seemingly vanished into the underbrush, Airi crouched down and took her time to read the tracks. In the forest, considering the man wasn't exactly a wood walker and had fervently been working towards his way home to find help, she guessed it would be a tad easier to trail his footsteps. Not only would his footprints be easier to read in the softer dirt of the forest, but she expected various small plants to be trampled, twigs to be broken and leaves to be ruffled by his less than subtle escape.

And right she was. The man had been like an elephant in a porcelain shop. Like a drunk, he had left a trail of destruction, seemingly having crawled around in some areas, as he searched for his way to the road. The man had been lucky, in a sense, as the road laid miles away from where Airi found caught the sound of sobbing children and a panicked mother attempting to calm them all down. He could have gone in a completely different direction, never finding the road and never to return.

As she purposely cracked a few twigs, the family jumped up, somewhat expecting a highly annoyed wild animal, but instead they looked right into the eyes of a gently smiling girl with grass green hair and amber eyes. The expression in their eyes told Airi they weren't sure if they were dreaming, or if they had actually been found.

"Hello, I'm Senju Airi, genin of Konohagakure. Your husband has send me to find you?", she greeted them, and spontaneously triggered a symphony of relieved sobbing and smiles. She hugged the kids warmly, and offered the woman the rations and water so that they could regain some of their strength. From her herbalist satchel, she took out a few remedies and bandages to patch up the most basic of their wounds and listened to their tragic story with empathy as she applied first aid to each of them.

Once the biggest fear had passed, it was time to guide them back. Airi knew they required urgent medical care, but since she was no iryo-nin herself, this was the best she could do. Time pressed on as the sun was slowly setting, soon allowing the forest to be cloaked by the night. It wasn't something Airi was looking forward to, as she had little means of finding her way in the depth of the night. However, if she could get them back on the road before nightfall, all would be well even if they'd arrive at the Village rather late.

"We'll have to leave now if we wish to reach the road before nightfall. I'll summon a few wolves to watch our flanks, so should you lose sight of myself know that you are safe for as long as the wolves remain with us. They and me can't leave each other's side too far.", seeing the family nod, Airi conjured three mud wolves and placed one of them on each unprotected side, leaving a comfortable amount of space between them and the family so as not to scare them. With this escort, the family slowly followed Airi for a long hour until the road appeared, dimly lit by the last few rays of the sun.

"We did it. Now we just stick to the road and we'll get home. It's another hour of walking, but we should be safe here even at night."

The difficulty rose as the kids, already weakened, also were close to exhaustion. While Airi could pick up the youngest as they walked, the other child wasn't as easy. She suggested allowing him to rest upon one of the wolves, but having his clothes full of mud wasn't exactly a pleasant foresight either. They'd have to do what they could, for now, but Airi preferred pragmatism above beauty in cases where survival was important for the safety of the people.

As the sky darkened, the child Airi had picked up had fallen asleep on her back, while the other one was being carried on a makeshift stretcher, pulled forth by two of the wolves. The continued maintenance of the mud wolves along with carrying the child did demand its toll of the genin, but she refused to give up until she reached the gates where, partially out of concern that they hadn't shown up before the fall of the night, a group of iryo-nin had been appointed to expect them.

As they approached the gates, the iryo-nin ran up to them and took over from Airi, immediately bringing the exhausted family to the hospital. She had completed her mission successfully.

[Exit]


wc: 1184 / 1000