Mission Details:

  It was still early afternoon when Rhys finished his last mission he had dropped off the supplies and collected his reward. The large man had nothing else to do today so he decided to check the mission board for something here in town. As luck would have it there was a brand new posting. Apparently a local shop owner has had an issue with some kind of rodent. It was a nice simple job right in Rhys's wheel house. He accepted the mission and set off for the bazaar.

  It was around 5pm by the time Rhys made it to the general goods store that has posted the mission. A shrunken elderly woman rushed up to Rhys with surprising agaility as he walked in the door.

"Welcome! Welcome! This is the finest shop in all of Sunagakure! We have everything you could possibly need. Shall I show you some new clothes? The latest fashions from across the lands. A man your size could surely use some food how about.." The old woman was prattling on and on with the ease of a practiced salesperson. Rhys finally had to raise his hand silence her.

"Listen, I don't need anything lady. I'm here to help you with the rodent problem." Rhys explained after she had finally fallen silent. In response to his statement the old woman's demeanor completely changed.

"Oh well why didn't you say you were the help. It took you long enough to get here! Now get in the back and kill that rat that's been eating my profits!" The kindly woman had transformed into an indignant shrew of a person. Rhys sighed as he went into the storage room.

  Rhys entered the large and cluttered back room. He grumbled under his breath at the  treatment he had received from that old bat as he scanned the room. The first thing he noticed were the tiny pellets of rodent droppings. Defintely an infestation but it didn't seem like too many were likely to be in this room.

  The first step was to check the base of the walls. When it came to rodents they either get in by accident or chew through from somewhere else. He didn't see any holes above so he began moving the merchandise searching for any tiny passageways. He went around the entire room and couldn't find a single entrance on any wall. It was time to try something else.

  Rhys started checking different foods stores in the room for signs of being plundered or chewed on by miniscule assailants. He noticed the grains were the most heavily ransacked so he started moving the bags around. He reached over to move an upside down basket that was in his way, when something underneath caught his eye.

  It was a tunnel that went straight under the ground! This was no way. Rhys immediately perked up at this new development and leaned down for a better look. The small hole was much to dark to see through be he good tell it quickly angled away. He stood up to ponder the situation.

  Rhys couldn't afford to sit around and wait for the culprit. He had to find a way to figure out where the tunnel led. He was thinking about how the unknown animal might be feeling in a tunnel when a thought occured to him.

  Yuuma Kenta, Rhys's father, had once told a much younger Rhys a story about saving a group of miners that had been trapped. No one on the outside had been able to find a way through, but Yuuma had a trick. He could manipulate the ore in the mine to lead him to the deposit where the miners were located. Yuuma had blasted his way in, but Rhys had a more subtle idea.

  Rhys pulled out one of his senbon and began channeling chakra to his fingers and ran them up and down the needle. The repeated stroking of certain metals with a powerful magnet (such as rhys's chakra) can be used to bestow a weaker temporary magnetic state. After a few minutes of this the senbon was able to stick to his hand, setting gravity. Next he put the senbon in the hole as far as he could reach. Now came the hard part.

  Rhys stood over where the tunnel ran underground. He hovered his hand a few cm above the ground searching for the senbon's magnetic field. Finally, he felt the small pull of the magnetic needle. Rhys focused his chakra into his hand to increase it's magnetic force. He was able to slowly move the needle through the tunnel by poking around for different paths.

  It was a slow and arduous process but it worked. He guided the senbon up to the wall of the storage room. He dropped the needle and turned to sprint out of the building. The pocket sized shopkeep shouted at him to get back to work but he sped forward paying her no mind. He exited the building and rushed around the side to the outside wall of the storage room.

  Rhys got down on all fours and began searching for the magnetic field once again. The huge bulking man down on his hand and knees, waving his hand above the ground was a sight to behold. The few people walking down the road pointed and laughed at the humorous spectacle but Rhys let it slide. He would normally have snapped at them, but he knew that normal villagers would crumble before him and were not worth his time.

  After some time Rhys was able to find the senbon again. With renewed vigor he began dragging it along to find it's source. Crawling forward he followed the tunnel about 3m to the back of an alley that was blocked off by a stone half wall. Rhys hoisted himself on top of it and looked down. Below him at the base of the wall was a small best with three sleeping creatures.

  As Rhys had suspected these were not rats. They were jerboa. These tiny rodents had almost half of their mass in their feet. Even though they were a few cm tall the could jump up to 3m when being chased, and they were great diggers. There were three sleeping babies in the nest but the parents were nowhere to be found. They must have left to find food when the sun had begun to set.

  Hopping down off the wall, Rhys bent over to pick up the nest with the creatures within. They awoke in a panic and Rhys had told hold them in the nest with both hands. They squealed in terror which Rhys had counted on. He held the squeaking nest near the tunnel entrance so the parents would hear their cries no matter how deep they were. This would ensure that they followed Rhys as he walked away with their young.

  If Rhys had tried to catch these jerboa it would have taken hours of he had been able to at all. Now he had them chasing him. He walked to the edge of the village trusting that their paternal instincts had made them follow. When he was a few meters away from the gate he stopped at a small spiked fern. He placed the nest within at its base. The plant itself would protect them. It also had the added benefit of being edible and attracting insects which were both good food sources for the rodents.

  Rhys walked back a ways and waited. And waited. Finally as he was just about to give up, he was gratified to see the hopping mother come to join her babes.

  Rhys returned to the general good store. He calmly showed the woman the tunnel before collapsing it. She was not very grateful, but he had not expected her to be. The payment was all the thanks he needed.

  Night had fallen by the time he turned in his mission and Rhys was tired. Two missions in one day really took it out of a guy, but he was one step closer to his goal.

Exit

WC:1367 for 300 ryo