Featured suspects of this chapter:

Neji: The no-pupiled Hyuuga genius. Another one who prefers to be in solitude…unless he's training of course. A master at the gentle fist and the Byakugan, Neji's not one to be messed with. His desired color is white, which signifies freedom. Which unfortunately, he doesn't have. His summon is a cat. Not the same as Kiba, however; Neji's cat is white. The reason Neji took a cat was because he absolutely abhors birds. Which is, coincidentally, Hinata's summon.

Tenten: The no-surnamed weapon's master. Tenten is always seen with a Kunai, Shuriken, or Senbon. And in buns. She takes no nonsense from anyone and is a very down-to-earth person. She looks up to Neji in a way, and is also his sparring partner sometimes. However, her ultimate role model is Tsunade, the fifth Hokage. She would do anything for her. Her desired color is green and her summon is a bear. A small bear, mind you.

Lee: The no-ninjutsu-ed taijutsu specialist. Lee has a nice, big crush on Sakura, who doesn't seem interested. He looks up to his sensei, Gai, and even wears the same green suit. And the same bowl haircut! For an unknown reason, Lee cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu, and that is why he worked hard to be the best at taijutsu. His desired color is pink (to Sakura's dismay), and his summon is a turtle. A big turtle, mind you. Fear the power of youth! Yooosh!

Find the Crimson Four-Leaf Clove--!…oops, wrong story. Well, just find SOMETHING!

Naruto sighed loudly in his seat at the Hokage's Office. The Hokage had called his team and Gai's team for a special mission. Unfortunately, the Hokage was late. Very. Late.

"Kakashi-sensei must be with her," Naruto said out loud.

"I heard that, you brat." Naruto visibly cringed as he heard the Hokage's voice. The said Hokage barged through the open door.

"Tsunade-sama!" Tenten sighed like a fangirl. She was glad that the Hokage had decided to come. First of all, it was TSUNADE. Second of all, she was bored to death with the five other genin in the room. She was so bored she wanted to play darts with her Senbon, but no one else wanted to play. She had sighed and remarked that no one would be able to beat her anyway. No one argued with her.

"Tsunade-sama, why did you call us here today? Is it a mission?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade nodded. "It's…a special mission."

"A special mission?" Lee repeated.

"Yes. Is seems that a representative from the Sand came today. Shizune told me that he wanted to give me a special pendant, to insure where we were standing with them. The pendant is made out of the most valuable rocks in the Sand village."

Naruto jumped up excitedly. Sakura flinched when he made a clinking sound as he did so. "So what do you want us to do? Escort the man back to the Sand? Is it a dangerous A-rank mission where he'll be attacked by random large ninjas?"

Tsunade sighed. "No."

Naruto slumped back into his chair.

"Wait for me to finish. We had a trade back with the Sand too. It is an engraving of the Konoha leaf in a frame."

Naruto snorted. "That's it? The Sand'll never stay allies with us if that's all we're giving."

"Shut up, I didn't finish! The leaf is engraved in pure silver, and the frame is made out of pure gold."

Naruto decided to look elsewhere at that moment.

"Anyway, this was supposed to be a secret trade. But apparently, someone seems to have heard of this pendant and our plaque, and decided to snatch it away from this desk." She pounded on her desk. Everyone flinched. "My OWN desk. The Hokage's desk! The nerve of them!" she yelled to no one in particular.

"Um…Tsunade…sama?" Sakura said, afraid.

The Godaime cleared her throat. "Yes. Right. Well, your mission is to find the thief and bring him back to me, DEAD OR ALIVE!" The genin flinched again.

"Okay, maybe not DEAD. Just…bring him back. It hasn't been too long since he stole them, so he should still be in the village. I have told the guards at the gates not to let anybody outside of the village. At all."

"So what do we get for finding the culprit? After all, this isn't a real mission. I can be out doing something else, like training," Sasuke said.

"You're right, Sasuke. In fact this is more like a D-rank mission. Shizune reported that she didn't see any weapons on the man," Tsunade said.

"Tch. Then why didn't Shizune catch the man instead of watching him walk off with the items?" Neji scoffed.

"It was lunch break. No one was on duty at that time," Tsunade answered simply.

The group stared at her incredulously. But no one wanted to question the Hokage.

"It seems like this man is not from this village. After all, no one in this village dares to oppose me. So you wouldn't find him hiding out in someone's house," Tsunade said. "Shizune also said he was carrying around a strange knapsack. Anyway, I'd rather you all split up and search for him. So this isn't a team effort. You may do it in teams if you'd like, but you'd also have to split up the prize from bringing him in."

"And the prize is?" Lee asked, curious.

"100,000 yen to whoever completes this task," Tsunade said calmly. Everyone's eyes widened.

"Why so much?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Well these items, are, after all, worth a healthy sum of money. In fact, just one of them is worth more than the prize money itself. But…" she looked at them all with a menacing glare. "…none of you are stupid enough to try to steal these items just because they're worth more, right? You realize that doing so will cause you to automatically become a traitor to the village, right?"

Tsunade stopped to stare at Sasuke for a few seconds longer than the others. He sweatdropped and unconsciously gripped the kunai in his pocket. Everyone nodded.

Tsunade's face broke into a smile. "Good. Now. Off you go."

After a few hours…

Tenten stopped to take a break under a tree. She sighed. "Where could that culprit be? Not only do I need that money, but I want to impress Tsunade-sama as well…"

She stopped talking when she noticed a figure out of the corner of her eye. What's more, the figure was carrying around a knapsack. 'Bingo,' she thought.

Meanwhile…

Naruto had stopped to "take a break" at Ichiraku Ramen. He was slurping up ramen hungrily.

"Hey Naruto," Teuchi said, "you know you'll have to pay for all those bowls eventually, right? It's not common for ramen stands to keep tabs, you know?"

Naruto swallowed. "Yeah, I know, and I'll be paying you in full once I get that prize money for catching a criminal! Oh!" Naruto jumped up in surprise. "Speaking of criminals, I have to go capture him! Just put it on my tab okay? I'll be back soon to pay up!" And with that, he ran off. Teuchi shook his head.

And elsewhere…

"Please Sakura-san! I promise to split the money with you, equally, 50/50! In fact, money is no option for me! I'll take but 25 if you'd like!"

"Oh Lee, you know I'd love to, but…" Sakura paused to think for a second.

'But I want all the money for myself!' Inner Sakura yelled, punching a fist.

"But I want to see how much my training has improved my detecting skills. I'm sorry. I'll partner up with you some other time, alright?" she said sweetly.

Lee nodded. "You're right. Since this is an easy mission, we should test our own skills outside of a team as well. Good thinking, Sakura-san." He looked around the area. "But the thief does not seem to be here. We should search elsewhere. I guess I'll see you later, then!" And he jumped into the trees.

Sakura sighed in relief. She then looked over the town. "Well, the criminal's not here, like Lee said. I'd better get going myself."

At the Uchiha Complex…

Sasuke stood. He didn't want to have to go there, but he figured that since it was deserted, the thief might have chosen the spot as a potential hideout. Hands in his pockets, he searched everywhere for the man. But he couldn't find anyone anywhere at all. And then he gasped.

He quickly turned and flung a kunai behind him. "Who's there?"

He heard a "clink", and he realized that his kunai had been stopped. When he got a better look, he realized who it was.

"Oh it's you. What do you want?"

"Nothing, I'm looking for the thief just like you are. You'd better stay out of my way in catching him, I need that money."

Sasuke stared in disbelief. "Oh? Being serious about this whole stupid thing, are we?"

The other person let out a laugh. "And you're not? Don't tell me you don't want the money."

"And what would I use it for? There's nothing I need. Everything essential is already taken care of. Everything extra is just what is wanted. And I don't have to spend money on things that aren't necessary," Sasuke remarked. "Then again, why am I talking about this to you?"

The other merely shrugged. "I didn't ask for you to go into details about your wants and needs. Anyway, I'm wasting time here. If you're not even serious about this, then there's no use talking to you."

"Tch. Like you would have gotten any information out of me anyway," Sasuke replied. The other person didn't say anything and left.

"Idiot."

Half an hour later…

Tenten still kept in pursuit of the robber. Within the thirty minutes she was following him, he had gone through all the places that were already previously mentioned. She finally got tired of the chasing game and decided to confront him. She waited until he had the potential to be backed into a corner and let herself be known.

"Hey, you!" she said, scaring the man half to death.

"W-what? What…do you want?" he said, voice shaking.

"You stole a pendant and a plaque from the Hokage's Office. I demand that you return them at once and turn yourself in. There's nowhere to hide," Tenten said.

"N-no! I…I did…not…" the man whimpered in his corner.

"No need to lie now..."

"Just a minute, Tenten! He's mine," another voice said. Tenten didn't bother to turn around, for she already knew who it was by the tone of the person's voice.

"Nope, no way. I got this one," she said, not taking her eyes off the cornered man. "Leave now or I'll force you to," she said to the person behind her.

"Really? What are you going to do? Poke me with your Senbon?"

"And what are YOU going to do? Poke me to death?" she countered.

"Tenten, as you know, it is not merely poking, it's…"

But before the person could finish the sentence, someone suddenly came crashing down on Tenten, rendering her unconscious. "Konoha Senpu! I'm very sorry about this, Tenten! But I must have that criminal so I can show Sakura-san how strong I've become, and how my detecting skills have improved!"

"Lee!" the other person said. "Don't make me have to fight you as well."

Lee beamed. "Oh but it would be an honor to fight you!"

"It's not like you've ever beaten me. You will not start here."

Meanwhile, the man stuck in the corner whimpered. "Ex…excuse…me…"

"Yes, please excuse me, if you will!" A Shuriken struck down the person who was arguing with Lee. He did not move after he fell to the ground.

Lee gaped. "I had no idea you played dirty!"

"Yeah well, so did you. Just look at Tenten, why don't you?" the new person said. "The criminal's mine. Be a good guy and get out of the way, Lee."

"Absolutely not!" Lee positioned himself into a fighting stance.

"If you want to play it that way then…"

"…then get out of the way, idiot!" ANOTHER person said, hitting the person who threw the Shuriken with a weapon. The Shuriken wielder fell to the floor in pain.

Lee looked amused. "Ah. So you play dirty as well. I'm telling you now, you are not getting past me."

The man at the corner started to speak again. "H…hey, I…I…"

And then, a voice was heard from around the corner. Lee and the other person couldn't make out who it was or what the person said.

All of a sudden, Lee was stuck stiffly onto the ground. He tried to move, but found that his feet were stuck to the floor. "What the-!"

The other person wasn't able to move as well.

A new person emerged from the shadows.

"Sorry about this."

Triumphantly, the person knocked the poor man in the corner unconscious, and ran to the Hokage's Office to collect the reward of 100,000 yen.

Who caught the criminal? How? And where? And for extra credit…name all the people who came to the final place in the order of which they came, and what weapons they had (if given).