Kapitel 117: Ch117. Mission report

Rei moaned as he woke up, feeling somebody laying on his chest. He half-opened his eyes and relaxed when he spotted the messy and tangled mess of blue hair enter his vision. Clearly, they took it a bit too far with Konan yesterday night and both fainted. Releasing a deep sigh of relief, Rei put his hand on Konan's head and gently caressed her hair, carefully to not wake her up, causing her to snuggle more into his chest. He would chuckle if his mind didn't freeze as he spotted Mei standing next to their bed with her arms crossed and exaggerated pout on her lips while her eyes were trying to drill a hole through Rei's face.

"Uh... hi?" He awkwardly greeted her, scrunching his eyebrows. "What are you doing here, Mei?"

Mei only jealously huffed as she turned her head towards the still sleeping Konan who was blissfully sprawled on Rei's chest with a megawatt smile, her hands possessively around his waist. Rei saw Mei let out a small whine before she turned around towards the door and her back now faced the duo lying in the bed. "I just came to inform you that you were called to the Mizukage's office." She sullenly said before stiffly walking out.

'Is she... jealous?' Rei wondered in amusement.

...

Rei, Konan, and still sullen Mei walked into the office of the Mizukage and couldn't help but wonder how much it changed with Himeno not being around. The first thing they noticed was the air becoming stale and stuffy. The Mizukage most likely didn't open the window often. The room was not really messy. It was tidied up but didn't give the feeling of proper care and neither was there the vibe of superiority that was always present when Himeno was there to tend to it. Frankly, the woman knew exactly how to arrange things for people to feel small or insignificant when in her presence and something was clearly missing in the room to give it that important vibe of it belonging to someone important.

Further in the room, Mizukage was wrestling with stacks of paperwork. He no longer looked cheery, rather he had a weary look and black circles under his eyes as he sat with his shoulders slumped while filling out form after a form. Rei could understand why the Council wanted him to name a successor. The man was ruined and lost his drive.

"Team Downpour reporting as ordered." Rei stated, snapping the Mizukage from his reverie, causing him to look up at them. His eyes were quite dull and sleepy, making Rei frown. This was really not the man who welcomed them in Kirigakure years ago. It was almost sad.

"Ah... Rei. Sure, I wanted to hear how your mission went." The Mizukage stated hollowly, no longer having that vicious bite in his tone that always produced witty arguments between them. Rei frowned at that. He enjoyed their verbal sparring. It wouldn't do if the man completely folded. Nevertheless, he started explaining what happened...

"Wait! You used PRANKS to get attention in Tanera!?" Mizukage shrieked. "I ordered you to destroy it!"

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I most assuredly did." The Mizukage spat with a venom lacing his tone as he gave Rei a scathing glare.

"Oh, well. I must have forgotten, then." Rei said with a light uncaring tone, making the Mizukage groan. "But the mission was a success nevertheless. We stalled hundreds of ninja and thousands of samurai so not like anyone can complain. Well, anyone besides the inhabitants of Tanera since they were the victims of our witty and nefarious plans on how to screw Konoha over. I think we did an incredible job since most of them are jobless and penniless." Rei finished with a beaming innocent smile that made somehow the Mizukage aware Rei was angry with him at being given such a mission.

"Rei..." The Mizukage called out almost pleadingly. "You are a ninja, act like it!"

Rei's smile dropped and complete seriousness filled the room. "Sure... You are also a ninja, act like it too, then."

The world stilled as the Mizukage and Rei stared into each other's eyes before the Mizukage chuckled. His chuckles slowly morphed into snickers before becoming small laughter and ending up as full-blown unrestrained laughter as the man banged his fist on the table, hunched over from stomach pains due to laughing.

All members of Team Downpour were just awkwardly standing in front of his desk, staring at the apparently new madman until he finished with his practice of mad laughing.

'Was I too straightforward?' Rei thought worriedly.

'Did he crack?' Konan thought in amusement.

'Somehow, I am suddenly glad we are leaving Kiri.' Mei thought as she gave the Mizukage a weirded out look.

The Mizukage finally stopped laughing, and only an occasional chuckle left his lips as he tried to calm down. "Thank you for that, Rei. I needed the reminder."

'So he didn't go crazy. Such a pity' All three members of Team Downpour thought ruefully. Outwardly, Rei just nodded in acknowledgment.

"Now, care to explain why one of my genin is marked as SS-rank by Iwagakure?" The Mizukage glanced at Mei before he turned to Rei with his left eye twitching in irritation and exasperation.

"The Iwagakure is crazy?" Rei tried to sound innocent but the Mizukage instantly gave him a deadpan stare. "Fine! She fought ten thousand enemies." Rei shrugged.

The Mizukage could only groan again. "Why does it have to be always so difficult with you?" He idly asked, not expecting an answer but Rei obliged nevertheless.

"Because I am special?"

The silence became deafening in the room and it took a few seconds before the Mizukage started speaking again. "Right... Anyway, we fought ten thousand people is NOT an answer, Rei."

"But I didn't say 'we' fought them. I said 'she' fought them."

That stopped the Mizukage short, causing him to be completely flabbergasted. "Wait. You want to tell me that a genin managed to win against-"

"Yup," Rei interrupted. "I am apparently a marvelous teacher!" He gave the Mizukage a thumbs-up before Konan swatted him on the shoulder while barely restraining her snickers. Mei had no such problem and openly laughed at Mizukage's expression. Maybe Rei really was a bad influence? Nah, that couldn't be it.

The Mizukage looked from Mei to Rei and back before his eyes settled at Konan. "Is it the truth?"

"Oi!" Rei rebuked, annoyed at being doubted but both Konan and the Mizukage just ignored him.

"Yes." Konan stoically said with a nod.

"I see... Fine." The Mizukage sighed. "I want a full report on that battle on my table in a week at most. You are dismissed." He said and returned to his paperwork with a lighter and happier look.

'Really, I am such a good therapist!' Rei proudly thought to himself only to receive another swat on the shoulder from Konan who instinctively felt her lover was thinking something stupid.

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Kapitel 118: Ch118. Leaving Kiri

Rei, Konan, and Mei sat in the living room of their flat, recounting what they have to do before finally leaving Kiri for good. The biggest problem was Mei's report to the Mizukage since they doubted they would be allowed to go on a mission before Mei handed that to the Mizukage. In the end, Konan proposed to make use of the Mizukage's busy schedule and Rei accepted which basically meant they would be leaving Kiri at the end of the week, right after Mei handed her report. This made their schedule quite packed for the following week.

First, Konan made sure to spread her papers everywhere in the village, put them into hidden spots all in order to be informed. She even created a new Jutsu, a special type of paper clone that could access all these spying papers in the Kirigakure and had her own intelligence to determine what was and what was not important to report. The entire clone was powered by natural energy so it could last indefinitely until it was canceled. Funnily enough, despite the Council knowing Konan could manipulate paper, nobody really paid attention or even tried to find out the limits of it. Nobody had even an inkling she could spy through it. The best they could imagine her doing was cutting things with it which was plain dumb in Konan's opinion. If anything, Earth-hardening was much better for offense than Wind-sharpening. This ignorance made it incredibly easy for Konan to become aware of almost everything important that was going on in Kirigakure. Not even three days later, she brought the news of where exactly was the sealed three-tailed beast hidden to Rei but he just shrugged, deciding they will get its chakra later when it actually had a jinchuuriki.

Even Konan didn't understand yet why Rei told her to create such a massive information network in Kirigakure. He naturally wanted to get some clans for himself once the purge started and without knowing when to rescue them, any effort from his part would be useless. Needless to say, Rei wouldn't have that if he could help it.

As for Mei, she decided to stay the entire week indoors if only to avoid the idiotic and bothersome fawning of the villagers. She was not blind and could see the great fear they had for her in their eyes and how fake their acting was.

Mei-sama this, Mei-sama that. Mei-sama you look so wonderful. Mei-sama you are so powerful... who did the idiots think they were fooling when not even a half-year earlier they were all glaring and sneering at her? Seriously, only an utterly brainless idiot would be happy for getting recognition from people who clearly hated him and believed it was real when they switched their cloaks and became nice out of nowhere after he or she performed some meritorious deed for the village. Mei would rather have none of it rather than have some fake recognition.

Rei spent the week browsing through the library and discreetly storing any Jutsu scroll he found interesting or useful. His kleptomaniacal craze was stopped only after five days when the library was flooded by ninjas looking for clues who was stealing their scrolls after they finally noticed something amiss. Rei wondered what it was. The completely empty shelf in the B-rank Jutsu section, the fact that twenty A-rank Jutsu were currently unaccounted for, or the collection of cookbooks from the civilian section he took for fun... Personally, he suspected it was the cooking books. Jutsu were overrated, after all.

The week finally passed and the Team Downpour sans Mei found themselves at their personal training ground, ready to embark on another mission... unknown to the Kirigakure, their last one for the village.

Mei finally arrived and huffed in discontent. "These stupid chunins at the mission center had the cheek to ask me why I am taking mission right after handing the report for Mizukage before he could even assess it!"

Konan just chuckled at the clearly vexed girl while Rei rolled his eyes. "You know it's their job. It really is suspicious and you know we had you take the mission because as the newest SS-rank, the chunins won't give you any trouble in fear of it backfiring later."

"Maybe so but still!" Mei angrily stomped her foot on the ground before averting her gaze and crossing her arms under her developing chest. "I should have melted them."

Rei gained a mischievous smile and approached Mei. Before she could react, Mei found her cheeks being pinched by Rei as he smugly raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to blush and try to pull away from him.

"Ah, ah, ah. Don't be arrogant, Mei." Rei ruffled her hair. "Or I and Konan will have to beat the arrogance out of you. You won't enjoy it." He warned her, happy to see her flinch, taking it as an assurance she understood.

"Well, then le-" Rei was about to turn around to leave when he was surprised by a person approaching them from the tree line. All three of them instantly put their guard up.

To their utter shock, it was Ringo who was unsurely approaching them, a bag slung on her back, her face looking pensive while her hands held the handle of two swords around her waist in a fond manner.

"Uh... hi?" She uncomfortably greeted them, getting a raised eyebrow from Konan, a piercing look from Mei, and a slightly concerned frown from Rei. Before any of the three could start speaking, Ringo decided it would be better if she explained herself first. "I... I know you are leaving Kirigakura and I want to go with you." She said, feeling her stomach sink, as she for the first time uttered out loud what she was doing. She was turning traitor. It was almost physically sickening for her to even think about it but... Kirigakure betrayed her first. In the end, Tsunade was correct. Ringo had to choose and after many sleepless nights, this was her answer.

Ringo expected questions, bewilderment, protests, demands to prove what he said to be the truth so she was naturally floored when she was met with shugs and clicking of the tongue from Mei as Konan smugly outstretched her hand, palm up, towards the girl and the peeved Mei handed over a pouch to the smug Konan.

Konan saw Ringo's jaw drop as Mei gave her the winnings of their little bet and amusedly smirked in her direction. "What? I know everything that's going on in Kirigakure. Did you really believe I wouldn't be aware of your internal debate? I just didn't know if you would get your shit together before we left or if you would defect later in order to find Rei." Konan rolled her eyes while Mei scoffed, clearly not believing Ringo would defect later. Konan ignored Mei and continued. "You love Rei and with the way the Mizukage treated you and the fact that Tsunade set you straight, making you face your feelings for Rei and weigh them to those for the village..."

"Yes, yes. Our resident manipulator knew what would happen. We get it." Mei interrupted while her eye was fiercely twitching. "Frankly, I am watching you, Ringo." She said, stating her intentions and distrust towards the former wielder of Kiba.

Ringo mutely nodded, knowing she really deserved that one for her blind loyalty to Kirigakure as she turned to the most important person from the Team Downpour, Rei. He was watching her with his pointed piercing look as if looking into her soul. This was no longer the happy-go-lucky, witty, and mostly carefree teacher who taught Ringo most of what she knew. This was a ninja who was showing her he didn't trust her fully despite their past student-teacher relationship. It broke Ringo's heart a bit to be doubted by the man she loved but in the end, with the way she always acted, it was natural and she would be greatly disappointed if he just accepted her.

After a while, Rei threw something at Ringo who caught it and opened her hand to reveal a small ring, making her give Rei a questioning look.

"It's a camouflage ring with seals that will mask your chakra signature completely. If you want to come with us, you will have to get through every sensor and sealing barrier around the village since you did not take the mission with us." Rei said and turned around.

Just like that, their final journey away from Kirigakure started. Rei was told long ago what Tsunade did for Ringo and that the final decision was on the girl herself. Ringo chose and there was nothing to talk about. He would just respect it and see where that led them. In the end, no matter how he tried to just let it go, he still liked the girl he basically raised and made into a respected killer.

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