Chapter 30

Sunagakure
Ryoma, Jonin

Mari was in the Kazekage’s office again, holding a red-haired baby and happily waving at him as he entered with Baki and five Genin. The little silent giggle she gave when she saw the kids indicated amusement at his expense.

He would’ve returned fire, but he was setting an example right now. He came to a stop before the desk and raised his hand in a salute. Baki snapped into one immediately after, and the kids took a bit longer to realize that they should be doing the same.

The Lord Kazekage set his pocky-stick down in a little glass tray. “Field Commander Ryoma. Report.”

“The mission was an overall success, with an eighty percent fulfillment of the primary objective and the collection of four items of significance. Complications arose when Subteam 3 encountered an unknown enemy at their target location, suffering one fatality before backup arrived. Target location three was destroyed by the unknown enemy, making completion of the sub-objective impossible in that region. The items of note recovered are, two recruited orphans, one sword suspected to be chakra-metal, and the body of the unknown enemy. The body of the KIA genin was recovered successfully. “

He tilted his head slightly before continuing. “The sword of suspected chakra-metal, used by the unknown enemy, was disarmed and collected by Genin Mao. In accordance with the tradition of trophy-taking, it has been entrusted to her. The orphans and bodies have already been delivered to the appropriate departments in the Logistics Division. Fragments of a gem embedded in the sword’s blade were recovered, and I do not know what you want me to do with them.”

Mari’s expression was significantly less cheery when the mention of a slain genin came up. The Lord Kazekage raised his brows, leaning forwards a bit in his chair and tapping on the desk. “Show me.”

Ryoma reached into his vest and pulled out a little scroll, stepping forwards to set it on the desk, unfurling it, and letting a tiny puff of smoke burst out from it. The Kazekage stared for a few moments, before reaching forwards to pick up one of the shards of gemstone and raising it up to his eye for inspection.

“…No known significance.” He declared, setting the fragment of the gem back down and winding up for some kind of drawling explanation. “The Suna vaults contain a great deal of waste-minerals, most of which were pulled up from the sand while I shifted for gold-dust. The pile of this particular mineral is two kilos already.” He leaned back and waved his hand. “Make a necklace of it, or something, that would be more valuable than selling broken fragments of a crystal.”

“Understood, Lord Kazekage.” He pressed a finger to activate the storage-seal again, then rolled up the paper and tucked it away.

“Outline the details of this enemy.” The Kazekage ordered, taking another bite of his pocky with slightly furrowed brows.

“Roughly my height, slightly stockier build, brown hair, black eyes, preference for sword-use. He was injured by the time I arrived to provide backup, thanks to the efforts of Team Three. I prioritized their safety and disabled him destructively.” Ryoma raised a hand to rub at the back of his neck, through the cloth. “This had the unfortunate side-effect of… mulching… the upper half of his head.”

The Lord Kazekage stared for a few moments, before raising a brow. “Mulching, you say?”

“Yes Lord Kazekage.”

“Hm. Very well. Do you have the written reports prepared?”

“Yes Lord Kazekage.” Ryoma replied, reaching into his vest to pull out the report in question, before setting it down on the table and stepping aside. Baki stepped up to set his own report down, followed by the leaders of the genin teams. Ryoma exchanged a look with Mari as they almost bumped into each other trying to figure out what order they should be setting their reports down in.

Mari grinned cheekily at him.

Eventually the kids had stumbled their way into placing a series of report-scrolls on the table and stepped back, returning to their spots with nervous expressions and strained postures. They were very clearly nervous about being in the same office as their supreme military commander.

Which was silly, it’s not like the Kazekage was going to order their execution for stepping a bit out of line. He had more important stuff to worry about than making sure every little genin knew to respect him.

The Kazekage waited a moment, taking another bite of his pocky as the genin tried to get organized. Then. eyes still closed, he continued. “Field Commander Ryoma- you are officially relieved of your command. Everyone except Jonin Ryoma, you are dismissed.”

Baki and the genin gave salutes before walking out, the genin following Baki like a bunch of stressed baby ducks as they exited the door and pulled it shut behind them.

Mari giggled openly, which was soon followed by the noise of the baby giggling, and Ryoma let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Hehe- how’s teaching treating you, Ryoma?” Mari asked, leaning forwards while letting the baby play with her pinky.

“It wasn’t hard to tell why they were remedial.” Ryoma replied dryly, making her almost double-over in laughter. The Lord Kazekage gave a barely-amused exhale through his nose. Ryoma gave a weary nod towards his supreme leader. “Lord Kazekage- what did you need me for?”

“I needed to notify you about your change in living conditions.” He stated bluntly, something that was slightly concerning to hear.

“…my living conditions…?” Ryoma asked with a cautious tone in his voice.

“Preliminary evaluations of the puppetlimbs have been successful within expectations. Preliminary evaluations of your ‘Kyojutsu’, the Superheavy Puppet ‘Great Dragoon’, have been promising if unproven.” The Kazekage reached into his desk and pulled out a folder, tossing it forwards to slap upon his desk .”In light of your contributions to the field of puppetry, we’re assigning Jonin Tsubame to be your permanent guard and aide.”

Ryoma felt distinctly whelmed, expression hidden behind his mask as he took up the folder and flipped it open to start looking. “That seems a little much, Lord Kazekage. A Jonin could be doing a lot of work more important than helping me do chores, surely?”

“Jonin Tsubame was recently crippled and outfitted with new puppetlimbs.” That rang a familiar note in Ryoma’s head, making him glance up and look more directly at the lord Kazekage as he continued speaking. “As the current expert in the field, it is anticipated that she will benefit from proximity to you and your work.”

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He glanced down at the profile in the folder- sure enough, the picture was of that one ninja who had her limbs melted off by Hanzo.

He inclined his head to the side. “Puppeteers are known for going on creative tangents- it is hoped that your tangents will result in more effective puppet-limb designs, facilitated by proximity to our most-affected ninja. If you can return majority function to her as a combatant, even gradually, it will be considered a great success.”

Ah. Yeah that made more sense. “You want to keep her around me so I get distracted and occasionally make her a new weapon-limb for the village to copy.” Ryoma summarized dryly, to which the Kazekage nodded shamelessly. Ryoma sighed, reaching up to scratch his cheek. “Yeah- I can’t exactly fault the logic there.”

“To this end, Jonin Tsubame will be assigned to you as bodyguard and aide on an indefinite-duration mission. Expect a roommate.”

Ryoma frowned, looking up from the profile. “…There’s a problem, Lord Kazekage.”