Hokage's Office
"Alvarcus Mar, reporting mission success."
Tsunade grins eagerly. "Mission success? Wonderful news. You'll be paid for a C-rank mission."
"OI! That's not right! You said if I got it done today it would be a B-rank!" I don't want to be shorted on my mission pay.
"Consider this punishment for your comment earlier. Unless you'd rather submit to some very... invasive medical procedures. I'm okay with either I'd love to see what makes the Jiongu tick."
"C-rank pay you said? Sounds more than generous." I will not be doing that, no thank you.
"That's what I thought." Tsunade smiles in victory. "Anything noteworthy happen on the mission?"
"Uh... yeah. Sort of. I mean I wouldn't classify it as noteworthy or really important, but it definitely is odd." I ramble on. "Honestly I'm still kind of surprised about it."
"What happened?" She's serious. The playfulness from earlier is gone, we're all business now.
"That's just it. Nothing happened." I begin to explain. "I can't remember the last time I had a mission that didn't spiral out of control in some ridiculous way. This mission is weird because it was normal."
"Squirt, while I do admit your mission history is chaotic at best, not every mission will be like those. Enjoy the easy ones. Now unless you have something that's actually important to say, get out of here."
"Oh yeah I brought you a present." I reach into my mission bad and pull out all ten of the armbands from the bandits. "I figured the client would demand proof, so I brought these back. Every member had one. Must be their symbol or something." I set them down on her desk.
Tsunade nods in approval. "Good thinking. No doubt he will demand proof. Now scram squirt! I have a village to run!"
...
Uchiha Compound
"OI!" I knock on Sasuke's door ridiculously loudly. "You there Sasuke?"
"Yes! Don't break my door! Jeeze, could you hit it any harder?" He grumbles in response.
"If you want me to I could kick it."
He opens the door and glares at me.
"No. What do you want? I thought that since you moved out I wouldn't have to see you everyday."
"I wanted you to come see my new place. This way you know where it is."
With a groan Sasuke caves into my request. "Fine. I'll see where it is, then I'm gone. I want to relax today. Alone."
We leave his house to go to mine, it isn't that far away. We made good time and are there within a few minutes.
"Well here we are. Now you know where I live."
"I half expected you to move back into your parents house."
I grimace. "I couldn't. I'd remember them everyday if I lived there. I'd remember them dying. I have no idea how you do it."
With a grim face and determination in his eyes Sasuke says, "It's a reminder, my motivation. It reminds me of my reason to hunt down my brother. It pushes me forward."
That is some twisted logic, but I can't deny the results. Sasuke is one hell of a shinobi for his level of experience.
"Alright, I saw your house. See ya around."
He starts walking away. I shout after him, "We only have today and tomorrow off. Come find me the day after tomorrow and we'll get a mission."
He grunts in response and goes on his way. The Sound Four must have not talked to him yet, that's good. I can still save him, keep him where he belongs.
"Oh Kami, I have to wait an entire day to see if he leaves or not. I can't do this! I need a distraction. I need a mission, that'll work. Hopefully not a D-rank, a nice and easy C-rank like yesterday. That would be nice."
With a new goal in mind I make my way to the Hokage tower.
I head up the flights of stairs and nod to the people who wave and smile at me. I am becoming a rather common sight around here and for some reason Tsunade likes me. I just think the other people present like that I break up the monotony of their days, somehow things always get entertaining around me.
"Hey Shizune."
I fall in step next to the Hokage's assistant and take some paperwork off of the huge stack she is carrying.
"Are these going to Tsunade?"
"Yes they are. Thanks for the help. How've you been?" Shizune asks me. "I heard that Tsunade used you to help win a bet with a client. Any truth to that? No one will tell me."
Uh-oh, this just got dangerous. Shizune can be scary when she needs to be and she isn't afraid of standing up to Tsunade.
"Bets with clients? That sounds very irresponsible. Especially since I'm on leave."
"Alvarcus." Shizune says sternly. "You didn't answer me."
"Would you look at that! There's Tsunade's office! We better drop off these paper! How many are in these stacks anyways? It must way like twenty kilograms!"
"Alvarcus Mar you get back here right now!"
I practically sprint into the Hokage's office. I'm saved! Shizune enters moments after me.
Tsunade doesn't even look up as we enter. "Just put it over there Shizune. I'll get to it eventually." She point to the in tray on her desk.
I roll my eyes. "Sure thing boss."
Startled by a voice that isn't Shizune's, Tsunade glances up.
"Alvarcus? Oh no, she roped you into being her assistant didn't she? You poor child, I am so sorry for you. She's a slave driver. Never a moments rest! And she keeps hiding my sake!"
"Please Tsunade," Shizune says in annoyance, "tell us how you really feel."
I laugh at both of them, it was just too funny! "Nah, I was coming in to see you for a mission and I saw Shizune with a stack of papers and figured I'd help her out."
"Let me get this straight." Tsunade puts down her pen and give me her full attention. "You're here for a mission? On one of your leave days? That you complained about missing yesterday when I had you win me a bet?"
"I knew it!" Shizune exclaims "Tsunade how could you? Shinobi are not supposed to be use for betting! And Alvarcus you shouldn't encourage her! You know better than that!"
Tsunade and I both ignore her.
"Yes?" I weakly say back to my Kage.
With a loud sigh Tsunade rubs her forehead. "Request denied. You need to take a few days off. Go read a book or hang out with your friends. Now get out of here I have work to do."
"Tsunade please. I need a distraction." I'm practically begging her. I'm all but bowing down to her.
"You know what? You want a distraction fine!"
Finally, I get a mission. Hopefully it will be easy.
"Here. D-rank. No one is taking it, it's all you're getting."
I catch the scroll she tosses at me and read it. A D-rank is better than nothing, it'll at least distract me for an hour or two.
"Tora?" I say in exasperation. "You want me to catch Tora?" A Tora mission. This will be easy, that cat loves me. I don't know why though, maybe I was a cat person in a previous life? I haven't been in the two I can remember.
"Yep!" She grins maliciously. "That should keep you distracted for a few hours! It takes whole teams of talented gennin hours to track this kitty cat down, and then a few more to corner and catch her."
"Please, I'll have this done in an hour tops." A Tora mission. Of all the possible ones she could have picked it's this one.
"Oh?" Tsunade grins in evil joy at me. "Want to bet on it?"
"Depends on the terms. What do you want?" I am part of the team that holds the record time, she has no idea what she's getting into.
"Oh nothing too big. I just want you to remain a gennin until two Chunin Exams from now." That is a long time. The next exams are going to be in Grass and she wants me to wait until the one after that? "And I want you to annihilate everyone there. I want you to show the power of the Leaf, that even our gennin are a force to be taken seriously."
"Where will the exams be at?"
"Lightning Country."
"Ah, that means there will be no clan children sent. That's why you want me to win. If a clan-less shinobi is this good, how good are our clan kids? You want me to send a message to the Raikage to not mess with us even though we were just invaded."
"You're too smart for your own good. Basically that is the idea. I also want to make some money, and I have a very confident feeling that you won't have any issues sweeping the exams." Always with the gambling.
"I'll agree to that on one condition. You let me in ANBU during my year stuck as a gennin. I still need to improve and get high level training not offered to gennin."
"Acceptable." She instantly agrees. "I'll at least put you through the ANBU training program, I can't promise I'll use you for missions."
"Good enough, that's all I really wanted. Besides, imagine an ANBU level shinobi at the exams? How ridiculous. If you think I'll win them easily now, just picture how much of a joke it would be then!"
Tsunade and I share a brief laugh.
"That would be quite amusing. What do you want if you win?"
I take a moment to think it over. With what she is asking I could say just about anything, but there's only one thing I truly need. "I need a fire heart. Do we have any prisoners on death row that have a fire affinity?"
Tsunade stills. "That's asking a lot. You would kill someone for their heart?"
"No. Never for their heart." I turn serious, the time for happy fantasies of wrecking the Chunin Exams is over. "But a convicted criminal? One sentenced to death for their actions? I have no qualms about killing them. I reason it to kunai. You don't kill your enemy for their kunai, but you take theirs if you need to once they are dead. I figure if the convict is going to die anyways, I might as well take their kunai. Their heart."
Tsunade relaxes minutely. "You won't kill for a heart, yet you have no qualms about taking one if the opportunity arises. Like a kunai, a tool. That is very smart of you. Out of curiosity, how many have you had?"
"I've had a total of six." I don't elaborate, I'd rather not remember how I got each one.
Tsunade blanches at my response. "You have six hearts?" She sounds morbidly curious, like a sight so horrific you can't look away.
"I've only ever had five at once. I don't know if I can have more." I should figure that out. I'll ask the Jiongu later.
~We can only have five. Any more and our body couldn't contain the chakra.~
Dammit, there goes the idea for a ridiculous amount of lives. Imagine if I had ten! I bet that would blow Kakuzu away if he ever found out about it. Maybe if I had six with a small chakra supply?
~It isn't about the amount of chakra, it's about the different types. Each person's chakra is unique, even identical twins still have drastically different chakra. I can only successfully balance five unique types of chakra at once. If there were more our body would start to decay as each type fought against the others for dominance.~
...
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