Mission Accomplished

"Ouch! Spare me..."

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

"I surrender, please stop burning us, ninja-sama..."

Seeing that nearly half of the street gang had been incinerated by Akaseki, while the remaining half lay on the ground wailing and begging for mercy, Akaseki finally stopped.

These civilian chakra thugs could hold their own against ordinary genin from a ninja village if they had the advantage of numbers, but against a chunin, they required "human wave tactics" just to stand a chance; otherwise, they were essentially lambs to the slaughter.

Unfortunately for them, both Akaseki and Ranwu were chunin-level, and the dozen or so opponents were far from being a "wave."

With such a commotion caused and Minato keeping an eye on Heiji, Akaseki and Ranwu weren't in a hurry to hunt anyone down; they simply waited for the authorities to arrive.

Ranwu felt a slight sense of surprise—Akaseki's Great Fireball Technique seemed significantly stronger than it had been during the bell test!

Back then, the diameter of Akaseki's Great Fireball had been two or three meters, but now it was clearly... just over three meters.

More importantly, judging by the heat wave hitting her face, Ranwu could tell that Akaseki's fireball was a notch hotter than before!

While increasing chakra output could theoretically achieve a similar effect, it wasn't cost-effective, and Akaseki hadn't shown any signs of strain; it had clearly been a standard Great Fireball Technique.

Under these circumstances, a larger range and higher temperature clearly indicated that he had made progress in both shape transformation and nature transformation!

"Your Great Fireball Technique seems stronger than before... uh." Ranwu regretted saying it the moment the words left her lips.

Sure enough, Akaseki wore a smug expression as he said, "It's just nature transformation and shape transformation; it's not that hard."

Ranwu: ...

Not long after, the commotion in West Street drew the attention of the magistrate and other constables, and Heiji, who had intended to flee, was brought over under guard by Minato.

"Heiji! It was you all along... no wonder we couldn't find those thieves for so long!" Naiku glared at Heiji in fury.

By now, he had already heard the situation from the Konoha ninjas.

"Hmph, we work ourselves to the bone as constables, and how much do we get paid a month? It's not even enough to feed our families, while you fat pigs just hold meetings all day and split up piles of money... Isn't the peace of the Flower Capital maintained by us? I was just taking back what's rightfully mine!" Heiji said, throwing caution to the wind.

Heiji's words were...

Akaseki felt there was some logic to them and even nodded in agreement from the side.

Seeing this, Minato took the mission confirmation form from Naiku as early as possible and pulled Akaseki away.

There might be accomplices among the constables, but that was no longer the business of Konoha ninjas. With Heiji and some of the thieves captured alive, the Flower Capital could handle the investigation themselves—the mission had only cost one hundred thousand ryo in total, with the ninjas only receiving fifty thousand, so how much after-sales service did they expect?

After obtaining the mission confirmation from Naiku, the three of them returned to the inn.

"Oh? You finished the mission on the second day... not bad, not bad." Jiraiya nodded with satisfaction after seeing the mission report.

Jiraiya then straightened his face and said, "But don't get too cocky. This mission was expected to take three days... you must remember, in the future, use your brains more during missions!"

"Yes!" the three of them replied.

Jiraiya was serious for a moment before switching back to his "keep the music playing, keep the dancing going" expression, sipping his wine as he said, "Since you finished the mission today, I'll cover the food and lodging costs for today! Go ahead and relax; tomorrow we'll set off back to the village with Hiruko's squad."

If Akaseki and the others hadn't finished the mission, Jiraiya would certainly have settled the accounts strictly to keep them on their toes.

However, since they had finished early, Jiraiya paid for their expenses to let them unwind.

As for Hiruko and his team, they had just finished a long-term mission and were resting in the Flower Capital for a day, so they were also departing the next day.

Akaseki was naturally the happiest, as this meant he could ask Yashiro for advice on copying ninjutsu on the way back.

However...

On the night they were camping out on the road back to Konoha, Yashiro discovered a problem!

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

"Brother Yashiro, don't worry... my situation is a bit special. The clan head and Elder Lanyu know about it. I'll be mindful of eye fatigue and act within my limits," Akaseki explained.

Although the clan head and the elders had told Akaseki to keep the fact that he was being targeted by an "unknown entity" a secret, Akaseki hadn't deliberately hidden his recovery rate.

Whether it was with Fugaku or Yashiro, Akaseki simply didn't explain the reason, nor did he go out of his way to let people know his recovery was different from an ordinary Uchiha, but he didn't obsess over hiding every "anomaly" either.

After all...

A genius is, in itself, an "anomaly," and the clan head and elders hadn't asked Akaseki to pretend to be ordinary.

Hearing this, Yashiro felt relieved and didn't press further. After confirming that his ocular power was indeed stable, he helped him copy a few Earth Style ninjutsu.

Three days later, March 27th.

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

"After deducting the expenses during the mission and my own fee... here is your mission reward." Jiraiya said, handing each of the three a "small fortune" of 8,200 ryo.

"This much? Jiraiya-sensei, by rights, it should be..." Akaseki felt a bit shy seeing the amount.

This split was already quite generous.

Generally speaking, when "one chunin and three genin" completed a mission, the chunin would take half the reward for themselves.

As for this mission to the Flower Capital, the previous expenses for food and lodging had all been covered by Jiraiya, and he had even treated them one day, so the three of them were clearing a profit of 8,200 ryo; essentially, Jiraiya was splitting the reward equally with the three of them.

"Alright, today is the first time you've received a ninja reward. It's different from your usual pocket money; it's something worth celebrating and commemorating, so you should treat me to BBQ!" Jiraiya interrupted.

"Yes! Let's go to the most expensive Pine Leaf BBQ!" Ranwu decided immediately.

She wasn't short on these 8,200 ryo, but this held a different significance for her.

Counting personal consumption like Military Ration Pills during the journey, each person had earned about 8,000 ryo on this trip.

It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't a little either; in terms of purchasing power in Konoha, it could buy 100 bowls of Ichiraku Ramen with double toppings, or 200 bowls of the special-priced Ichiraku Ramen...

Of course, none of the three were particularly interested in money.

If Akaseki hadn't obtained the Immersion System, he might have been counting the money on his fingers, as ninjas have to eat too, but now... Akaseki just saw this as a beginning!