The Village Hidden in the Sand.

It was a village surrounded on all sides by nothing but dunes upon tall dunes of sand. Water, which was already scare in the desert biome of the Land of Wind, was fortunately not as scarce within the village itself, what with its various ninjutsu users contributing to its constant and steady supply of water. That being said, its rarity also hiked up the price of the cool, refreshing liquid.

Suna was now notably well-known for its high crime rate, unlike the village of Iwagakure in the neighbouring Land of Earth. That wasn't to say that Suna was completely crime-free, nor did it imply that Iwagakure was overrun with crime lords trying to vest power for themselves at every turn, even if it was a move as bold and suicidal as trying that on the Tsuchikage himself, Kazu Kanetsu. However, Suna's crime rate was low enough that it was surprising to receive a mission to catch a crook who had somehow robbed a bank, despite a majority of the measures put in place.

That was what Fuyuki was doing now, standing within the building that made up the district's bank. It was a small dome made of cement, with the actual bank located beneath the entire structure, its passageways spanning miles underground. In fact, the only reason Suna had yet to collapse due to the extremely complicated and vast networks running beneath almost a quarter of the village was because all those tunnels had been reinforced three times with endurable Earth ninjutsu. It was years of work, and the only reason the same had not been done for the village's outer defenses was because of the now standardised technique all ninja knew – that of the Supernatural Walking Practice, the ability to walk on surfaces otherwise impossible.

“I'm here regarding a small theft problem,” Fuyuki started, standing in front of what he thought was the manager of the bank.

“Say no more,” the manager replied, standing up. Despite his tall stature dwarfing Fuyuki, they shook hands civilly with neither showing any signs of anxiety. For the manager, it was normal. For Fuyuki, it was in the job description.

The manager then led Fuyuki into a small room in the back, which led them to a series of descending spiral tunnels that sometimes branched off into what Fuyuki thought were the other levels of the bank. They went down almost eighteen flights, if Fuyuki remembered correctly, before the manager walked into one of the passages branching outwards. The duo reached a door, which the manager unlocked for the two of them.

Inside, Fuyuki stood in awe. On both sides of the passageway were shelves, upon which were placed stacks upon stacks of papers, with the occasional wooden box. What awed him was, however, not the sheer number of documents, belongings, and finances, but instead the fact that one portion of said shelves had been utterly ransacked, with the shelf being devoid of any papers or boxes. Littered on the floor were several documents, one of which Fuyuki picked up for better view.

On it was an old lady's picture, with her smile revealing her lack of front teeth. Wrinkles adorned her faces, her cheeks drooping slightly, and her white hair fell into place around her face, framing it suitably. Listed down beside the picture were the woman's name, birth date, gender (obviously), and also various other details Fuyuki didn't think were essential to the robbery. However, there were a string of numbers that Fuyuki guessed were how much the woman must've had in her account, and the number was enough to make his eyes pop out.

“That woman has been our customer for well over five decades,” the manager said fondly. “It is a shame that it is her belongings that have been stolen.”

“But I wonder why her?” Fuyuki said to no one in particular. “If you look around, the thief could have easily stolen from any other person here, but it is this particular one that has been ransacked. All he had to do was slip through that door, which he has no doubt been able to do, and he can take his pick of anyone in this room. Yet, he specifically only chose this one, and I don't think it's because she had the most money. What can you tell me of this old girl?”

The manager cleared his throat. “Well, she has been our customer since she was an active kunoichi of age twelve. She used to deposit almost all her money here when she was young, though it became less often after she was sent off on high priority missions and she needed more money for her equipment. She retired from active service at the age of thirty-six when she became pregnant after failing an infiltration mission, having slept with her target but failing to assassinate him. Regardless, she raised the child as her own. She still often visits the bank to withdraw some of her large sums of money.”

“And I'm guessing you haven't informed her that her money's been taken?”

“No, we haven't,” the manager said. “It is regrettable, but I would prefer to have this small matter settled subtly.”

“Well, I think I have a good idea who the man is,” Fuyuki said. “Where'd she get pregnant?”

“Uh, that's quite direct, sir,” the manager said, coughing. “But the ninja, if I'm not mistaken, was from Iwagakure.”

Fuyuki thanked the manager and continued out of the bank, mind racing, though his face carried the same nonchalance that it held when he entered. He was only following a very vague lead, but it was the only one he had. He went to the northern gates of Suna and checked who had entered Suna in the past week. Finding nothing, he headed off to the western gates. The Chunin manning the gates were reluctant to hand Fuyuki the information he needed, but upon further persuasion, they relented, and there, ignoring his own name and his team's names, he found what he was looking for – the picture of an old man, whose country of origin was the Land of Earth, or more specifically, the place of origin was Iwagakure.

Following the information found on the small record book, Fuyuki made his way to the stated hotel, where he asked for the man's name in the reception. The clerk was surprisingly ready to give such privy information away, not actually prioritising the person's privacy. Oh well, that wasn't Fuyuki's concern. It made his work that much easier.

Knocking on door 818, Fuyuki waited patiently as an old man opened the door, the stern and annoyed look on his face not at all welcoming to the blonde Kuroka.

“What do you want, sonny?”

“You robbed the bank, didn't you?” Fuyuki asked, hands in his pockets as he displayed an air of nonchalance. It was the thing he was best at, whether intentionally or not.

“What the hell are you talking about, sonny? How does this old man rob anything more than his wife's panties?” And then the old man proceeded to ramble on about how he could not be a thief, adding quite a few curse words that Fuyuki was sure would've had his parents back from the grave just to soap his mouth. “And that is exactly why I ain't the robber of no bank, you hear me, sonny?”

“You seem to be awfully protective.”

“Well, sonny, it's because sonnies like you always come up to old men like me, thinking you're hotshots because you have all the young age and whatnot, and you think that just because that's that, you're ready to accuse old men like me that we're robbers, all because you're too lazy to do anything?”

“Mister, do you mind me having a look in your room? Your fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime, and given you're from Iwagakure, I highly doubt they would allow you into such restricted areas.”

Fuyuki hoped the guy wouldn't call his bluff. His nonchalance act was to ensure that the man thought he was merely an average ninja who would leak out information like that without a care in the world, when in fact, no fingerprints had been found at the location. It wasn't that they weren't found, but they were merely distorted as the assistant who reported the robbery had already gotten her fingerprints smudged over a lot of the evidence. The only thing keeping her her job was her many years of service and unwavering dedication and loyalty to said bank.

The man's eyes narrowed, and he slammed the door shut, only for Fuyuki to quickly wedge his foot between the door and the door frame, keeping it open wide enough for the man's one visible eye to glare at Fuyuki through the gap. Then, without warning, the man yanked the door open, before tackling Fuyuki.

The tackle failed however, as Fuyuki's heightened reflexes enabled him to avoid the out-of-shape ninja's attack, causing his attacker to stumble and drop to the ground face first. Fuyuki was then forced to jump back as the man recovered way too quickly for the old man he claimed himself to be, and charged at Fuyuki like a beast. Fortunately, Fuyuki was no ninja for nothing, and he brought his palms together in a clap, before bringing them back.

“Wind Release: Gale Palm!” Fuyuki yelled as he pushed both palms forward.

A large gust of wind was created, raging around in the hollow corridor and howling without mercy. The man was thrown back from his charge, with several cuts now staining his previously wrinkly skin. The man tried to throw one last glare at Fuyuki, but he fell unconscious from the pain of having his head knocked against the wall. One person came out of his room and, shocked at the sight of the unconscious man, instantly called the police and medics.

Half an hour later found the man behind bars, though there was a medic nearby in case the man's mild concussion got any worse, or the wound he suffered to the back of his head as a result of Fuyuki's jutsu opened up again. Apart from that, his other cuts were not too life-threatening. Considering his age, that was good enough for Fuyuki.

Fuyuki had actually been playing on a hunch, and that hunch had proven correct when the person had come to attack him. Yes, it had been foolish to go for the first Iwagakure visitor in Suna, but meh, Fuyuki was never known for thinking things through when he didn't want to, and in this case, he didn't really want to. He was already exhausted from his training, and bored from how long it was taking to set up a meeting with the Kazekage, though he could respect that she was taking her job to her village as seriously as she was, if it was taking this much time up.

Oh well.

Chakra 135/150:

Word Count: 1883

Word Count Break: 1000 + 463 + 420

Completing mission [Track the Thief] 1000/1000
Training [Wind Release: Slash] 437 + 463 = 900/900
Training [Wind Release: Air Bullets] 420/900