Who let the dogs out? [D-Rank Mission]

Seemed like there was no end to this life of menial labour for the young Genin. In a sense, he now couldn’t really wait until he was with his team actually performing some more complex missions. Those D-Ranks, although necessary and an important part of the Hidden Leaf Village’s booming economy, were indeed quite annoying after a while. He took the first two in stride and tried to get some learning out of it, but right now he was feeling really annoyed as he walked down the village with three dogs on the leash and sighing deeply as he did so.

”Why don’t they walk their own dogs?! Come on! When you decide to adopt a dog, you are making a commitment to the poor doggo! Companionship between the owner and their faithful hounds is part of what makes this relationship special… What’s the point of getting someone else to the job?!” he complained to himself and one of the dogs barked to it, almost as if he was agreeing to the statement and Ren sagely nodded to the responsive doggo. ”See? Good thing I’m not alone in my thoughts… I just hope people would see this the way we do, doggo friend…” he added as he continued his bored walk around the village.

Without noticing though, and probably out of an automatic habit, Ren was slowly approaching the food district of the Hidden Leaf Village and that was making the dogs quite excited. At first, he didn’t get why they seemed to be picking up the pace. Truth is, a dog’s sense of smell is infinitely better than that of a human, unless they are part of the Inuzuka or the Hatake clan, as far as Ren knew. In any case, he had to tighten the hold on the leash as the three dogs seemed almost ready to sprint. ”Easy now, guys… It’s not like I’m very energetic today, okay? If you guys start running it will be a hell of hassle… Let’s make this mission nice and easy, alright?” but his words seemed to be falling into deaf ears, as the dogs only seemed to get more excited as they continued on their way.

”What on earth is going on with th… OH!” and as he suddenly realized where they were, his eyes glowed in excitement at the same time his mouth drooled a bit. The smell finally reached the young Hyuga’s nose and his mind was immediately transferred to food paradise. He could smell the Gyukaku, the Ramen, the Sushi and, most importantly than all of those, the Takoyaki. So many rich flavours, so many gastronomic pleasures available. No wonder the dogs were going crazy! They were completely right. Ren’s grumpy face gave its place to a large and eager smile and he nodded his head a few times in a quick pace. ”I see, I see! I was a fool! But you guys already knew that we were walking into paradise! I surrender myself to your wisdom! Hehehehe!” the boy joked as the dogs barked in agreement.

Tapping deep inside the kindness of his heart, Ren looked at the dogs and sighed. ”Okay… Since my mission is to take care of you guys, I will feed you first and only then I will get something for myself. This is quite the privilege, mind you…” he added as he made his way to a dog food stand nearby. ”Yo, Ossan… Can I have three large and delicious treats to these guys here?!” he asked and the man quickly grabbed some juicy meaty treats made for dogs and handed it over to Ren.

The Hyuga boy quickly unwrapped it and placed it on the ground in front of them. ”Now you guys wait here while you eat, because good ol’Ren here needs some food as well, and those Takoyakis are looking great! Don’t leave this place, okay?!” and without further due, the boy turned around and went to the Takoyaki stand, where he grabbed a big skewer with about six balls of octopus. He immediately destroyed two of them on the time it took for him to come back where the dogs we… Or where they were supposed to be.

The boy’s jaw dropped as he noticed that the dogs were not there anymore. ”I’m a freaking moron… Of course they wouldn’t stay here… Dammit!” he thought to himself. With watered eyes, he looked at his Takoyaki for one last time, with four of them still left, knowing duty was calling and he couldn’t just eat them. With pain in his heart, he threw the in the garbage nearby and focused again on his mission.

”Byakugan!” he exclaimed with a serious and irritated expression on his face, still suffering from the pain of losing his food. With the recent evolution of his doujutsu after his sparring with the Uchiha boy, he could now activate it without any hand seals, and the range and ability of his eyes increased significantly. Luckily, this increase in range came in hand, as the dogs were all about 180 metres away from him; before, his eyes could only see up to 50 metres.

With a quick movement, the boy used the tiger hand seal. ”Water clone jutsu!” two water clones popped out beside Ren and with a quick nod to one another, they went separate ways, each chasing one of the dogs. The creatures were quick, but Ren had the Byakugan as his advantage. Luckily, the dogs were just being playful after the excitement of eating the treat and they didn’t really fight back when Ren grabbed their leashes once again. ”You scared me for a second there, buddy! Hehehe, but all is well now!” he said as he walked back to a central point in between the clones, as they could all see where each other were thank to the range of the Byakugan.

”Dogs are really high maintenance… If I ever get myself a pet, I will go for a cat!” he chuckled as he thought about the topic. Now that the dogs were properly walked and fed, Ren returned them to the owner and bid him farewell, with the happiness of having complete yet another mission. The excitement of the chase made the initial boredom with this mission to vanish completely.