Mission Complete

"Hey! Spare me..."

"Help... I won't do it again..."

"I surrender! I give up! Please, Grandpa Ninja, stop burning me..."

Seeing that nearly half of the gang of street thugs had been burned to death, while the rest had fallen to the ground, begging for mercy and crying for their mothers, Akaseki finally stopped.

These civilian chakra thugs could put up a fight against ordinary Genin from a ninja village by relying on their numbers. Against a Chunin, though, they needed "human-wave tactics" to stand a chance. Most of the time, they just got slaughtered...

As luck would have it, both Akaseki and Ranwu were Chunin-level, and a dozen or so opponents hardly counted as a "sea."

With such a commotion going on, and Minato watching Heiji, Akaseki and Ranwu weren't in a hurry to look for anyone. They simply waited for the others to arrive.

Ranwu was a little surprised. Akaseki's Great Fireball Technique seemed much stronger now than it had been during the bell test!

During the bell test, Akaseki's Great Fireball had been two or three meters across. Now it looked to be... a little over three meters.

More importantly, judging by the heat washing over her, Akaseki's Great Fireball was hotter than before!

In theory, he could have achieved a similar effect by pumping in more chakra, but that wouldn't have been worth it. Besides, Akaseki hadn't seemed to strain himself just now. It must have been a standard Great Fireball Technique.

Under these circumstances, the wider range and higher temperature clearly meant he'd made progress in both shape transformation and nature transformation!

"Your Great Fireball Technique seems a little stronger than before... Uh." Ranwu regretted saying it as soon as the words left her mouth.

Sure enough, Akaseki looked smug as he replied, "It's just nature transformation and shape transformation. It's not that hard."

Ranwu: ...

Before long, the disturbance on West Street brought the constable and the other catchers over. Minato also brought Heiji over, having caught him as he tried to escape.

"Heiji! So it was you... No wonder we couldn't find those thieves all this time!" Naiku glared at Heiji angrily.

By now, he'd heard the Konoha Ninja explain what had happened.

"Hmph! We work our tails off as catchers, and how much do we make in a month? It's not even enough to support our families. You fat pigs sit around having meetings all day and rake in money hand over fist... And who do you think keeps the peace in the Flower Capital? We do! I'm just taking back what's mine!" Heiji said, giving up all pretense.

There was... some truth to what Heiji said.

Akaseki thought it made sense, and nodded along from the sidelines.

Seeing this, Minato quickly took Naiku's mission confirmation letter and led Akaseki away.

There might still have been accomplices among the catchers, but that wasn't the business of Konoha's ninja. They'd caught Heiji and some of the theft ring alive; the Flower Capital could investigate the rest on its own. The city had only paid one hundred thousand ryo for the mission, and the ninja assigned to it would get only fifty thousand. How much after-sales service did they expect?

After getting Naiku's mission confirmation letter, the three of them returned to the inn.

"Oh? You finished the mission on the second day... Well done, well done." Jiraiya looked at the mission papers and nodded with satisfaction.

Then Jiraiya put on a serious face. "But don't get too pleased with yourselves. The mission was only expected to take three days, after all... And remember, you need to use your brains more when you're on missions!"

"Yes!" the three replied.

Jiraiya was serious for a moment, then went right back to his "Let the music play, let the dancing continue" expression. Sipping his wine, he said, "Since you finished the mission today, I'll cover your food and lodging tonight! Relax and enjoy yourselves. Tomorrow, we'll head back to the village with Chunin Hiruko's team."

If Akaseki and the others hadn't finished the mission, Jiraiya would have kept strict account of every expense to make them feel the pressure.

But since they'd finished ahead of schedule, he decided to pay for everything himself and let them relax.

As for Hiruko and his team, they'd just completed a long-term mission and were taking a day off in the Flower Capital, so they'd be leaving tomorrow as well.

Akaseki was the happiest of all. On the way back, he'd be able to ask Yashiro for advice and copy some ninjutsu.

Only...

On their first night camping outdoors on the way back to Konoha, Yashiro noticed something was wrong!

"Akaseki? Why are you practicing ninjutsu again? Can your eyes handle it?" Yashiro spotted Akaseki secretly training and frowned deeply.

"Yashiro, don't worry... My situation is a little special. The clan head and Clan Elder Lanyu know about it, too. I'll keep an eye on how tired my eyes get and make sure I don't overdo it," Akaseki explained.

Although the clan head and Clan Elder had told Akaseki to keep the fact that an "unknown entity" had latched onto him a secret, Akaseki hadn't gone out of his way to hide how quickly he recovered.

Whether it was Fugaku or Yashiro, Akaseki simply hadn't explained the reason. He hadn't gone out of his way to tell anyone that his recovery was beyond that of an ordinary Uchiha, but neither had he worried about concealing every "abnormality."

After all...

Being a genius was an "abnormality" in itself. The clan head and Clan Elder hadn't told Akaseki to pretend to be ordinary.

Hearing this, Yashiro finally relaxed. He didn't press for more details. After making sure Akaseki's Dojutsu Power was still holding up, he helped him copy several Earth Style techniques.

Three days later, on March 27.

Jiraiya's team and Hiruko's team returned to Konoha and went to the Hokage Building to submit their mission reports.

"After deducting the expenses during the mission and my own pay... here's your mission reward." As he spoke, Jiraiya handed each of the three a "fortune" of eight thousand two hundred ryo.

"This much? Jiraiya-sensei, surely we should..." Akaseki said, feeling a little embarrassed.

The split was already quite generous.

Usually, when "one Chunin and three Genin" completed a mission, the Chunin took half the reward.

This time, the Flower Capital mission had also involved considerable lodging and food expenses, all of which Jiraiya had paid in advance. He'd even treated them for a day. The three had still come away with eight thousand two hundred ryo each. That meant Jiraiya had split the reward evenly between himself and the three of them.

"Enough. This is the first time you've earned a ninja's pay. It's not like getting your usual allowance—it's something worth celebrating and remembering. Treat me to barbecue!" Jiraiya cut him off.

"Sure! Let's go to the most expensive place, Pine Leaf BBQ!" Ranwu decided at once.

She didn't need the eight thousand two hundred ryo, but this meant something different to her.

Counting personal expenses like Military Ration Pills on the road, each of them had still made nearly eight thousand ryo on this trip.

That was neither a lot nor a little. In terms of purchasing power, in Konoha, it could buy one hundred bowls of Ichiraku Ramen with double toppings, or two hundred bowls of Ichiraku Ramen at the special price...

Of course, none of the three cared much about money.

If Akaseki hadn't obtained the Immersion System, he might have counted out every last coin. After all, ninja had to eat too. But now... Akaseki saw this as just the beginning!