Mission Name: Birds of Paradise

Mission Name: Birds of Paradise
Rank: D
Requirement: Genin, Minimum 8 Posts
Description: The messenger bird hatchery within Konoha has noticed a few missing eggs, this will seriously slow the process of deliveries if the birds aren't born within the right amounts. Your task is to investigate and try to return to stolen eggs, from whatever it be that has taken them.

After leaving the Hokage Tower, Raiden walked through the village toward the hatchery where the eggs were stolen from. After a few minutes of walking he came up to the building and went inside. He walked up some stairs and climbed the ladder to get into the loft. He saw the ninja responsible for the birds and walked up to him.

"Sir, I am Raiden Sakamoto, the Genin assigned to the missing eggs investigation. I was wondering if you could show me where they were before they went missing?"

The man motioned with his hand toward the nest in question. Raiden said his thanks and walked over to it. Kneeling down he looked at it from several angles then he brought his nose forward and sniffed. Thanks to his tenant he had advanced senses. Sniffing around the nest he picked up a strange scent. Looking down at the collection of branches and leaves he spotted a single feather. Picking it up he realized that it was not of the same type as the other birds that were housed here. In short, there was a predator on the loose.

After exiting the rookery Raiden started looking around for potential places for a bird to nest. So he passed by the Hokage tower and went to the top, only to be met by an angry chuunin who said he didn't have the clearance to go up there. Grumbling he went back down after coming to the conclusion that if he wasn't allowed up there then a ruddy old bird definitely wasn't.

After that he headed toward ANBU headquarters where he was gently turned away. And by gently I mean thrown headfirst out of the building into the street. He sat up and rubbed his head. "They could have been a little more gentle about it."

He decided that he would try a less direct approach and went back home, where he could do it away from prying (well, at least not the regular ninja or villager's) eyes.

Going into his backyard, Raiden pricked his finger and smeared the blood on his right hand where the tattoo is, ran through the handseals, and slammed his hand onto the ground where a cloud of smoke appeared from the release of chakra. The creature that the jutsu summoned flapped it's wings blowing the smoke away, revealing Satoru. They bowed to each other Satoru asked why he was summoned.

"Well, Satoru, several eggs have been stolen from the Messenger Birds Rookery and we need to find them. I believe that a predator took them judging from the feather I found. I think it might be a Harpy Eagle."

Satoru narrowed his eyes. He had had a run-in with a harpy eagle once. Not friendly creatures to be sure. Also have a bad habit of shrieking and constantly trying to gouge eyes out. Hopefully this would be one of the more moderate members of the race. And by moderate, i mean only tries to gouge, and doesn't shriek. Not likely, but still can't hurt to hope.

Satoru inclined his head, "Very well, i shall assist in this endeavor. But I expect a mouse in compensation."

"Agreed." And so the search began again in earnest.

The search was not going well. Everywhere they looked they couldn't find a single trace of the egg-snatcher and it was beginning to get on their nerves. And strangely whenever he asked if he could check someone's house for any clues to the birds whereabouts they slammed the door in his face. Some people are strange.

Going right along they went to the roof of the library and found... a nail. Now not just any nail, a piece of a chipped bird nail. Quite the find, however it seemed that the bird in question had departed quite some time ago, perhaps while they were getting thrown out of the Margalbi's place.

"Darn it! Where is that blasted bird?" Raiden cried, but upon seeing the glare from his feathered summon, started sweating and said nervously, "Not you of course."

He started walking away still feeling that glare on his back.

The pace was set. They had finally found the bird. Now they just had to find its bloody leech-infested nest, retrieve the eggs, and they were done, or rather, Raiden was. But that was all retrospect at this point.

The only problem was, they had absolutely no way to tack it. except for Satoru's flight capabilities they could not tail the feathered fiend.

Now if only he could sit on Satoru's back then they would be home free. Alas, he was far too big and heavy for such a feat to be possible. So Raiden just had him follow the bird and report back once he had found it's hiding place and they would be done by morning. But when are things ever that easy?

Satoru tailed the feathered fiend and learned that it's nest was on top of the head of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

He couldn't help but wonder if the Hokage title was a blood thing. Considering that the First Hokage was married to an Uzumaki and the Second was his brother. Then the Fourth married an Uzumaki and then the Fifth was the granddaughter of the First. And then the Sixth was the son of the Fourth and the Uzumaki who was a relative of the Uzumaki the First married. Just thinking about it gave Raiden headaches.

Back to the task at hand Satoru went back down and guided Raiden to the top and from there they went on to spy on the bird to see what it was doing. Gasping in surprise they saw that it had taken another egg to its nest as they were pretty sure how many were originally taken. Sneaking up to the nest once he thought the bird was gone he reached inside and started picking up the eggs.

But right when he was about to grab the last one he noticed it was different from the others. He gulped. Crawling backward slowly he moved away from the nest and back to safer ground. Right before he was in the clear he slipped. One of the eggs fell out of his hands and started falling off the Fourth's head.

It was falling for a little while until...

Satoru swooped down and rescued it, clutching the egg in his talon. Raiden sighed in relief. Finally things were looking up.

Unfortunately as soon as that thought left his head a new problem arose: the harpy. And it did not look happy. With his hands full he was unable to cast any jutsu's and and so as soon as he was on stable ground he ran as fast as he could without juggling the eggs and hoped that Satoru would arrive soon to give him back-up.

And this time it seemed that Kami heard him for at the very instant that the eagle was swooping down Satoru used his wind scythe technique to send it barreling through the air towards a tree which it rammed into headfirst, knocking it in the process. Sighing in relief he proceeded down the mountain without delay.

Once he was at the foot of the mountain he raced to the rookery and handed the recovered eggs to the handler. After that he left and sat down on a bench to recuperate. he had dismissed Satoru as soon as the eggs were returned and now he was by himself once again; he really wasn't enjoying all the running around.

With a sigh he got up and went to get a bite to eat before heading over to the Hokage tower to report a successful mission. He only wished it hadn't taken so long.