20 20 The return of the king

After Sakumo confirmed my identity, with the help of some of the more logistical personnel, he let me travel with him his battalion.

We didn't really talk much on, he 𝘪𝘴 the commander in charge after all, he's busy, the only reason it was him who found me is because he was leading his soldiers. He's kind like that.

One thing I have to say though, I am so glad I actually did memorise all of my identification numbers and codes, it was really tedious but it's also the only reason I'm traveling without being in chains.

As ANBU, I am technically the superior officer to even Jonin, despite probably only being around Chunin is pure power level.

Which means the only people present that actually have the authority to order me around are Sakumo and his helpers, advisors? lieutenants?

The point is, I could go to the people carrying the supplies and when they refuse to give me food,

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱, 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘶𝘱.

I can just order them to give me food.

And since this world isn't exactly a democratic one, the punishments for disobeying a direct order are rather severe.

Also, the food was ok, not as good as Machi's stew, but whatever.

Either way, after a relaxing days travel, during which I kept my distance from the army, they're so loud it's a wonder we both have the same job title of ninja.

Anyways, we are back in the borders oh Hi no Kuni, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 and it feels like I haven't been home in years.

I can't remember exactly where the forward base I slept in was, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 Sakumo and his command personnel were headed the same way, apparently him and Tsunade are swapping fronts, since Chiyo is up north now, she is needed there, and so Sakumo is going to take command to make up for her absence.

Other than my few questions, I still don't talk much, ANBU are supposed to be silent and serious after all.

Eventually we do reach the bunker, and once again, I would not have noticed it without being led to it.

It seems the gate guards recognised me, if the surprise on their faces is anything to go by.

As we enter and Sakumo heads to the command centre, I poke my head in too but not seeing any ANBU I instead head to our rooms.

When I open the door this time, instead of the nearly twenty ANBU from before, only six of the beds are being used.

The occupants all turn to me as the door opens, and whatever they were expecting, it wasn't me.

Before I can ask where the captain commander is however, one of the ANBU speaks in an uncharacteristically loud voice for us.

"six! you made it!"

Turning to the voice I see mantis, arm heavily bandaged but otherwise looking ok enough.

"mantis, it's good to see you're not as dead as i had assumed"

He seems to take my comment in good humour and puts an arm on my shoulder to start leading me out.

"c'mon, the captain commander will want your report."

Mantis leads me through a couple corridors, before stopping in front of a door and knocking before entering.

Inside is a modest and spartan office, which makes sense, since its likely to be temporary, inside of which is a man in a mask, working away. I think i can guess this one, it's got to be cat or a cat, right?

"wolf-danchou, six is back."

Damn.

At Mantis' words, Wolf stops what he was doing and looks up at us, and I just had a thought, but how do ANBU do the typical scary glares of your superiors, if you can't see their faces?

Ignorant of my important ponderings, Wolf speaks up, distracting me.

"six, it's been nearly two days, where have you been."

Oh you know, seeing the sights. Obviously, I didn't say that out loud.

"after escaping the chasing suna-nin I found myself somewhat lost in ame, after finding a map, and remembering our troop movements, I moved to intercept commander sakumo's return trip, before coming here with him."

"hm, I heard from mantis that you were integral to the completion of the mission, that said, i will still be expecting a full written report before the day ends."

"hai, wolf-danchou"

"good. dismissed."

As we leave, I can't help but look at Mantis, and with a suggestive tone that is completely lost in the mechanics of my mask I decide to try teasing him a little.

"so, i was integral to mission success? my, my, mantis, i didn't know you held me in such high regard, but you should know it takes more than a good word to our superiors to woo me."

The way he stops, and his mask looks at me is intense enough that I can see his incredulity even with the mask, before he finally manages to gather the words to speak.

"the fuck? aren't you like eight? why would anyone be trying to woo you?"

Ouch, my heart.

"well, technically i 𝘢𝘮 an adult, legally speaking."

"but, realistically speaking, your so little that your head barely makes it to my stomach."

Oh Mantis, you make it too easy for me.

"oh? so you agree then that i am the perfect height? after all, i have no reason to kneel."

At first he seemed confused, then he heard the latter half of my sentence, and after a moment of thinking, he seems to get what I was hinting at and stills for a moment before he continues walking.

Meanwhile I am trying not to shake from silent laughter.

"oh, so you're one of 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦, huh."

The fact that this is the second time someone has said that to me, makes it the final straw as I actually start laughing out loud.

That does make me think though, when was the last time I actually, genuinely, laughed?

It probably says something about who I am as a person that I'm so much happier in this world of death than I ever was in my old world, which now that I'm thinking about it, probably explains why I can hardly even remember anything about that world.

All I really remember are stupid memes that I don't even remember the context for anymore.

Like Among us being sus. I have no idea what the fuck that even means, and to be honest that just makes it even funnier to me.

Anyway, I ask Mantis about my squad, apparently Bear and Hound are fine, but Monkey, while alive, probably won't be seeing active duty again. At least not on the battlefield, since he is a sensor, and you don't need all your legs to sense.

After he tells me where the two of them are, I bit my farewells and head on over to say hi.

Opening the door to a more open, lounge, tactical room mix up, I see bear and hound and despite wanting to, I hold back the urge to sneak up on them to make them jump. Sneaking up on ninja is a bad idea, unless you're planning to kill them, I suppose.

Still making my way to them, they notice my approach, since I'm not hiding my chakra, well, at least not all of it.

When they see me however, Hound at least perks up a little.

"sup guys, i'm still alive, if you didn't know, how're you two holding up? i heard about monkey."

The two don't really seem that put out by the reminder, guess they weren't close, Bear goes back to relaxing against the couch, content to ignore everyone, I guess.

Hound, however, jumps to his feet and tries to grab me in a headlock, but the size difference makes it really awkward, so he just gives up and ruffles my head.

"when that big fire went off, we decided it was time to split, heard that was you by the way, monkey lost his legs cuz that pakura lady was chased after us for a bit. what happened with you?"

I was wondering how the forward team reacted to our fire, and now I know the name of the scary fire lady too, which, is... something, I suppose.

"oh, you know, got chased deep into ame by angry suna-nin, no idea why they were so mad, the world is full of mysteries i guess, then i had to find my way back, ran into commander sakumo on the way and came back with him."

Hound looks at me with what I would assume is a dry look behind the mask. These things are really inconvenient for socialising.

"yeah, i can't see why they would be mad at you, must've been having a bad day."

I know he was being sarcastic but that's no fun.

"see! i knew someone would see it my way."

He just scoffs and collapses back onto the couch next to Bear, lying across the entire thing.

Since he isn't leaving any space, I just shrug and sit of his legs and just relax for a moment.

Before remembering I'm supposed to be writing a report and groaning.

"what's up?"

Looking down on Hound, I decide he can help me.

"i've never written a report before, help me"

"why should I? you're sitting on me"

"exactly, i have you hostage, you must do as i say, or i will tell wolf that you purposely obstructed my ability to write my report."

Hound stares at me in silence for a moment, gathering his thoughts, he takes a sweeping glance around the room and the various ANBU present.

"you realise other people can hear you right?"

"so? i'm a cute little kid, and cute little kids can't lie, it's a fact, everyone knows it."

"i've never heard this before."

"guess you were an ugly little kid then."

"oi, you're not very good at persuading people."

"it's good then, that i don't consider you a person, hound."

Hound chuckles lightly before we sit in a comfortable silence for a minute. Just relaxing.

"so, will you help me?"

"sure sure, not like i have a choice, being your hostage and all, go find koala and ask for an empty report and come back."

I give him a nod and do so, I had to go back to get a pencil as well, but then Hound and I filled out my report together, me narrating everything that happened since we last saw each other, and him helping me with how to word it in proper report fashion.

All in all, it was a nice little bonding moment, and a rather relaxing way to end the past few hectic days.

I handed in my report to Wolf after we were done, and then collapsed in a bed, I don't know if these are assigned or not, but I just picked the one closest to the door, because now that I've had a moment to relax, I realise I haven't slept in like 25 hours or something and now that I'm safe in the base, all that exhaustion caught up to me.

With my face hitting the pillow, comes the end of my first ever mission.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

I need help, I've gotten addicted to Slay the Spire again, and i dont have any chapters saved up, but i really wanna play, so im going to do that for a few hours, then try to write a chap for tommorow, then go back to the spire.

I don't believe in pay walling chapters, and I never will, however, if you do want to support me and my ability to pay rent, then I created a ko-fi so please consider donating! even just a pound, of course only if you're financially stable please

https://ko-fi.com/bored_works

P.s @Mr_Potatochu, i dont use social medias and i have no idea how to set up a discord, but feel free to set one up if you want it so bad, i'll link it and everything.