53 Return trip

There is a slight difference between waking up and rousing from unconsciousness, and for once, the latter was actually rather pleasant.

At least it didn't feel like I'd been hit by a bus, still, as soon as I remember what happened, my mouth stretches into a grin so wide it showed teeth.

𝘈𝘩𝘩𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨

The rush, the adrenaline, the uncertainty of wether or not I'd actually survive, that my gamble would pay off. Then the roar of the crowd, deafening and celebratory of my own accomplishment.

I fought, outnumbered three to one, out skilled in just about every way, the only thing I had to my advantage was my mind and my experience, as well as, admittedly cheating once with Genjutsu, but hey, cheating is what makes a ninja.

That was so much fun, I can't wait to do more, more missions, more fights, more lies, it's all so intoxicating, like a drug I can never have enough of, and I happily admit to being an addict.

Is it really a bad thing to love your job?

Honestly, I'd do this even if I wasn't getting paid, pick a challenge and then rise to it, fight for it, work towards it.

Because the feeling of accomplishment just gets better the harder the task, and this is easily my most difficult task yet.

My revelling is broken by a door opening, and it's only then that I actually observe the room I'm in, though it just seems to be my room in the inn we are staying at. Looking back to the door I am beheld Jiraiya, who looks at me with a face that I just can't decipher, too many feelings and too good of a poker face.

"You're finally awake."

"How long has it been?"

It's probably not what my character would say but honestly I don't even care at this point, as far as I'm concerned, my mission is over, I've had my fun, job done, it doesn't really matter if Jiraiya is suspicious of me, I only need to put the mask back in place once I'm around Kiri-nin, and I can tell Jiraiya knows for sure something is up because of my question, but he ignores it.

Really, I'm starting to respect him a little, I've come to realise that he wears his mask very closely, but he is still an incredible ninja beneath it, I can see now, how he would be a spymaster.

"Only a few hours, they called your match, disqualified you for being unconscious, a good thing too, because I don't fancy your continued luck against two prospective Swordsmen, even without the Kekkai Genkai on their team."

Ahh, I can hear the capitalisation in his sentence so I know who he means, lucky me then, I definitely wouldn't have survived the terrible trio of chibi's without cheating and revealing myself.

"So, what now?"

"We were waiting on you, if you can move, then we're leaving, now."

It's rather telling that it's Jiraiya here, checking in on me and not my 'dear sensei', I wonder if he holds a grudge? Well, that's too bad then, it just makes me want to fuck with him, just see how much of a reaction I can pull out of him, maybe even make him mad enough he'll try to kill me, a comrade?

The expression Akira would make then would surely be 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭. Shaking my head to clear the distracting thoughts, I stand myself up, swaying lightly at first but stable enough, I jump on the balls of my feet a little bit, like a boxer, before deciding I'm good enough to run, I've also been out long enough that my river has replenished itself enough that I won't have a problem if nothing comes up.

Oh, if you're wondering how that works, when I took my character, I made my river about as wide as is needed to match the quantity of chakra a typical Genin would have, then I 'lock', for lack of a better word, my river from growing larger than that, but my whirlpool is also constantly making sure that my river has chakra, siphoning some of it's own over whenever the river isn't full, as my natural chakra regeneration goes straight to my whirlpool. Also my river is stupidly fast now, more like rapids, it takes sensors 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵 to see past my river and a few years down the line? No one shot of a sage will be able to see through me.

Even then, that's only because I have no idea what a sage is capable of. Man, I have too many projects, my cards, my Fuinjutsu tattoos, my medical chakra project, my secret project, my desire to be a sage, though that is very long term, probably only after I've finished my other projects, so I can focus on it. I want summons too but that's kind of tied into the sage thing, actually I should probably get started earlier than later. Eh, I'll ask for the reverse summoning Jutsu later.

What was I doing? Ah right, talking with Jiraiya.

"Well, I'm good to go, after you."

Saying so I gesticulate towards the door. He eyes me for a moment, but ascents nonetheless and we head downstairs, where everyone is already gathered. There is one less Genin present, but I don't ask, it's fairly obvious what happened to them and honestly I can't even remember their gender never mind their name, so I can't really pretend to care about them if I wanted to.

With minimal words and a lot of solemn nods, we are on our way out when Jin appears in front of our group, eyeing everyone suspiciously, I make sure to look like I'm shaken but trying to put on a strong front, it makes Jin scoff when he looks at me but who really cares.

"Leaving so soon?"

Jiraiya steps up to him, a smile on his face but the look of death in his eyes, he really isn't playing around huh, wonder if the other one that died was Minato's other teammate? It would explain why he was so down too, I just assumed he was being extra.

"We are."

They have a little silent stare down that must have been incredibly impressive but honestly I can't bring myself to care about some masculinity, dick measuring contest, especially when we all know Jiraiya is the big boy here anyway, Jin overestimates himself just because he has a big weapon, but you know what they say about overcompensating.

Predictably Jin gives first and takes us to the gate, where we are allowed to leave without any troubles and in no time at all we are leaving the land of the Mist, hopefully never to return, the moistness of the cold air really sucks, though, to be fair, Konoha is like a tropical paradise so maybe I'm a bit spoiled, in terms of weather.

The trip is silent, even though it takes us three days, slightly shorter as we don't have to worry so much about conserving stamina and in no time at all, we are approaching Konoha's gates.

After a quick inspection we are cleared to enter and I break of from the group without a word to head for ANBU HQ, almost immediately forgetting everyone who went to Kiri with me, I make sure to stop by my room in ANBU to get changed and remove my character, though the hair dye won't go away for a few days or weeks, which sucks. I like my hair.

I also need to do some surgery to make myself pretty again, because I'm incredibly vain. I blame my parents for that. Who teaches kids so much about hair and skin care and makeup anyway?

After changing into my vastly more comfortable ANBU outfit, mask included I then head back out of ANBU and towards the Hokage tower instead, to report to Takeshi.

A shot moment later, sneaking past the front desk because I couldn't be bothered to deal with the check ups, honestly, I just want to go have a nice long sleep and let my injuries heal, I make it to Takeshi's office and knock and enter with my right then close the door behind me as I stand before Takeshi at attention.

"Ah, Butterfly, you've returned. Report?"

"mission successful, I memorised a number of scrolls, some of which were actually useful. I'll have everything fully written out with my report by tomorrow."

"Good job Butterfly, now go get some rest, you've earned it."

I give a light bow and leave, heading straight home, ignoring my family for the moment as I break into my room, disabling the traps I have set up and rearming them after I'm inside, whereupon I first lock my door before getting out of my clothes, only wincing a little bit because of my injuries, and hang my outfit up on my door as usual.

Getting in bed I spend a moment to just talk, about what I've been doing, about how exciting it was, a̷b̷o̷u̷t̷ ̷h̷o̷w̷ ̷m̷u̷c̷h̷ ̷b̷e̷t̷t̷e̷r̷ ̷i̷t̷ ̷w̷o̷u̷l̷d̷ ̷b̷e̷ ̷w̷i̷t̷h̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷ ̷h̷e̷r̷e̷.̷

Eventually I succumb to slumber, excited for the fact that at least one of my projects should be finished soon.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

A short chapter but eh, I'm really struggling to get from point A to point B here, I'm torn between just doing a timeskip and them going over the projects he's finished and what hes still working on or showing his projects as he completes them with smaller timeskips, I'll probs do the former.

Edit: I've started the next chap with a time-skip, it will probs be out today but I gotta do some stuffs so idk, either way flirting time is finally upon us!!

https://ko-fi.com/bored_works