Chapter 173: The Legendary Thief

Daichi instantly looked at the details of the quest and was shocked.

[Quest created - Identify the Legendary Thief.]

[A mysterious and highly skilled thief had made their mark all over the world. No one has been able to catch or identify this thief since he/she began their exploits. Find this person's true identity.]

[Conditions:]

Gather information and find out the identity of the thief.

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[Rewards:]

3000 Exp.

+2 Level for Stealth skill.

+2 Wisdom Stat

+1 Intelligence.

Reputation increases with the client.

Reputation massively increased with Kakashi Hatake and Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shigeru and some people in Fire Capital and around the world.

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[Failure:]

[Failure to complete the 'Quest - Locate and Retrieve the Missing Item]

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[Accept Y/N]

The young Gamer's eyes slightly twitched as he looked at the failure part of the quest. 'If I can't complete the main quest without completing this one then is that really a choice you're giving me, huh system?'

He didn't wait for the nonexistent reply and accepted the quest. Daichi then looked at the guard and spoke.

"Can you tell us more about the Phantom Thief?"

"Daichi we're here to find who took Kenichi's family heirloom. Not to go after ghosts." Kakashi said.

"Yes I know that but… You just read the incident report. There isn't anything in there that's useful and I'm pretty sure the people who investigated this incident a year ago would have pursued all possible routes. What we need is a new angle. A different approach. Do you disagree with my assessment sensei?" Daichi looked at his sensei in anticipation. 'I have to get sensei to agree with me. The fact that I need to complete this quest to finish the main one means This Phantom Thief character is involved in this.'

Kakashi just sighed at his student's eager eyes.

Daichi decided to sweeten the pot. "Sensei, we'll go over everything in the robbery files and if we don't find anything, what do you say we look through the Phantom Thief's files? Who knows we might actually solve it."

The Jonin was silent and then agreed. "Fine. We'll do it your way."

At that moment the guard Shigeru chuckled. "Well, this has certainly gotten interesting. I'll bring the reports and files on the mystery thief while you two can go over the other report and see if we missed anything."

The guard left and Kakashi and Daichi went to a nearby table. They both took their time and looked at the detailed report and went through each line.

Kakashi carefully examined every piece of information written down in the scroll about the incident. 'Daichi was right. Whoever did this left no clue to trace. The ones who searched at that time couldn't even find a scent of the thief. We'd be wasting time with this report. We need a new approach…'

By the time they were done Shigeru returned with a scroll in his hand. "This is everything that's known about the Phantom Thief." He placed the storage scroll on the table and opened it. Dozens of files appeared atop the scroll.

"Wow. That's a lot." Daichi exclaimed.

"Yes. This is information compiled from the five great nations." Shigeru said.

"Wait? The great nations were cooperating?" Daichi was surprised at that.

Kakashi shook his head. "No. The thief stole from all the world and from some important people. But even that couldn't force them to work together. At the beginning none of the nations shared any information because they all wanted to find the thief first. But over time it became clear that it was going to be impossible. So after pressure from the Daimyos the Kages shared whatever intel they had on the thief to others on certain conditions."

Shigeru nodded his head. "Precisely. These files contain every location the thief hit, what they took, when they took and more. Dozens of people looked over these files and couldn't find anything."

The guard then looked at Daichi and Kakashi. "Listen. I know I joked about it being the Phantom Thief behind this but it's not. In all his robbery he leaves a Red Paper Crane at the scene. There was no such thing at Kenichi's house. And the Phantom Thief disappeared almost a decade ago. The heirloom at Kenichi's house was stolen only a year ago. So I don't think this was done by him. For all we know he could be dead. So there's the chance that you might literally be chasing a ghost."

"This certainly is a complicated mission. But I have a good feeling about this…" Daichi smiled as he looked at the guard.

The man smirked at Daichi's confidence. "Well, I'll get back to my position. Good luck Kakashi, Daichi."

The two Leaf ninjas nodded and sat down. They looked at the huge pile of files and sighed. "Well you heard the man. Let's get to work."

Daichi and his teacher started going through the files. At that moment Daichi asked his teacher a question that's been on his mind for a while. "Sensei, what did you mean when you said you've come across the Phantom Thief's work?"

Kakashi had a wistful look on his face as he remembered the time spent under his sensei Minato Namikaze. A few moments later he answered Daichi's question.

"It was during the Third World war. I was studying under the Fourth Hokage with my teammate. My team was sent on an escort mission. A wealthy merchant hired a team to protect him during his journey. He was an important client of the village so the Third Hokage sent our team. We arrived at his house and escorted him to the Hidden Waterfall Village. There he picked up his daughter and we escorted them both back safely to their home. But once we reached the place we saw that two items inside the house were missing."

"Didn't the place have guards? I would assume that a wealthy man would have a few protecting his home." Daichi asked.

"He did. There was a team of capable mercenaries guarding the house. But they didn't notice anything. We only found one thing that was out of place. A Red paper crane. The identity of the person was instantly clear to all of us."

"What did this Phantom steal?"

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At that question Kakashi recalled that day.

Flashback.

A ninja with bright spiky yellow hair wearing the Leaf Jonin jacket led two smaller ninjas into a large villa. "Team Minato reporting."

A tall, bulky man with long hair and a beard wearing a luxurious dress appeared. "Minato Namikaze. I've heard a lot about you. I'm glad the Hokage has sent your team. I feel safer already." The man smiled at the Leaf Jonin.

Minato stepped forward and shook the man's hand. "Thank you for the trust you've placed in us, Mr. Makoto. We will make sure any problems are taken care of."

"Yes. I know your team is more than capable. We will leave shortly for the Hidden Waterfall Village. I have to pick up my daughter and conduct some small business. So we'll be there for only a day. We'll return the day after."

Minato nodded. "Let me introduce you to my two students. This is Kakashi Hatake and Rin Nohara."

The merchant smiled and nodded at them. "Nice to meet you two… We'll leave in half an hour. In the meantime feel free to make yourselves at home."

Minato and his two students looked around the house and saw several artworks and antiques decorating the walls. As he looked Minato's eyes were drawn to a certain painting at the center of the room. He walked closer and inspected it.

"Is this what I think it is?" Minato's surprised and somewhat shocked question drew his student's and Makoto's attention.

The man came near the Jonin and admired the painting. "Yes. It's the original. It cost me quite a lot to acquire it."

Kakashi was curious about the artwork that drew his sensei's gaze. The painting was of a large ship sailing away from the viewer. "What is this painting sensei?"

"This painting was drawn over two hundred years ago. It is known as the Voyager. It was named after the ship you see in it. The story has it that the ship carried 100 brave sailors who traveled the world and saw everything they could." Minato said.

"Yes. The story is that the artist started on this work just as the ship took off and completed the painting in 4 days right there on the spot. Once the real ship completed the journey the value of this painting skyrocketed and over time it only kept increasing." Makoto said with a smile. "This is the most prized artwork here."

As they talked about the painting Rin's eyes were drawn to the music box near it. Makoto saw the look of wonder on her face and smiled.

"That music box was specifically created by an excellent sculpture from the Fire capital. I had it commissioned as a gift for my daughter."

"Very nice sir." Rin smiled.

Flashback End.

"It was a special music box. He showed us how it worked and sometime later we left the house. We returned four days later and saw that the painting and music box were stolen. In place of the painting was a small Red paper crane. The moment we saw that we knew the chances of finding the culprit would be slim to none." Kakashi said to Daichi.

"Did you guys investigate the incident?" Daichi asked.

Kakashi shook his head. "No. Well, our team didn't. If it were any other circumstances we might have. But we were in the middle of a war. The village couldn't put our team on an investigation mission. So we left."

Daichi was beginning to understand the history of the thief. The two ninjas looked through documents upon documents and noted the items stolen.

Hours went by and Daichi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh Man, this guy has stolen from all over the world. Diamonds, valuable paintings, exotic sculptures, rare manuscripts and scrolls. Exactly 40 thefts with nothing pointing to him except his signature the Red paper crane. No one can even give a description of the guy. Nobody knows where he's from or if it's even a he…"

"I told you this is going to be a really difficult case to crack."

"But not impossible. Everyone leaves something behind." Daichi was determined to complete this quest.

"Daichi, no one's ever come close to even finding this person's identity."

"You're forgetting one thing, sensei… I've never gone looking for him." Daichi had a confident smirk and resumed his work.

Kakashi looked at his student with an unreadable expression. 'Its good to be confident. But Hubris… That's a dangerous thing Daichi. Let's see how this goes.'

The two ninjas looked over every document present. In every case attributed to the Phantom Thief the most valuable item at the location along with something of minor value were stolen. And the signature Red Paper Crane was left where the most valuable of the two items was.

"The last time Phantom Thief struck was over a decade ago. No one could figure out how he got in or out of the places undetected. It's how he got his name." Kakashi said as he looked over the reports.

"Yeah. And in the incident that took place a year ago, there was no red crane and the thief took several things…" Daichi went over every detail given in the incident report. After spending several hours going over almost all the documents Daichi came to a conclusion. This conclusion was something he drew from the moment the second quest appeared but he needed to be sure.

"The thief may not have left a crane at Kenichi's home but I'm sure that the robbery was done by the Phantom Thief. Granted there are a few things different in this case but… He's got a certain style. There is a singular sensibility at work here." Daichi said to his sensei.

Kakashi looked at the items the Legendary Thief has stolen over the years and then to the items stolen from Kenichi's home. "So then if that's the case then why? If the history of that heirloom was real and that teapot was indeed more valuable then why didn't he leave his signature behind. And why start after a decade?"

Daichi was silent as he mulled over the question. He tried to look at it from several perspectives. A few minutes later he had a theory. "What if it was personal? What if the Phantom Thief had some kind of grudge against Kenichi's father or even Kenichi… or maybe someone found the Thief's identity and hired him to steal from them. Regardless, the Phantom thief is involved."

The Jonin mulled over the information and thought about their next move. "You might be right. We need to know more about Kenichi's father. We need to dig into his history."

The two ninjas sealed the documents back into the scroll and took it with them. They headed back to Kenichi's home to talk to the man about his father.

At the moment as Daichi and Kakashi made their way to their client's home they had no clue what was waiting for them at the end of the mission.

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Author's Note.

This is one of the few original mission arcs I've had in mind for a long time. Fair warning. It's a bit long.

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