Leaving the Land of Grass behind, Team Nine re-entered the Land of Fire and began their journey back to Konoha.
Along the way, Obito—bored out of his mind—started running his mouth again.
"This mission was way too easy! So this is what B-rank missions are like!"
His comment immediately drew reactions.
"Obito, this mission was mostly completed by Drake. You barely did anything," Rin reminded him gently.
"Is that so?" Obito scratched his head, still convinced he'd contributed. After all, without him, could they even be called Team Nine?
"The main reason this mission went so smoothly," Kakashi added, "was because Drake killed that Special Jōnin. That scared everyone else off."
"And that fear is exactly what kept us from getting harassed the entire time," he concluded.
Drake silently agreed.
He'd killed that man for one reason alone — deterrence. Without it, they'd have been pestered nonstop.
That Night
By the campfire.
"Kakashi, you write the mission report," Drake said, tossing him paper and a pen.
Kakashi blinked.
"You're the captain. Why am I writing it?"
"How is that a problem?" Drake replied calmly. "From now on, I hereby appoint you Acting Captain of Team Nine. You write it."
"Wait!" Obito's eyes lit up. "I can do it! Let me be the acting captain!"
"I said get lost." Drake rejected him without hesitation.
"I'm breaking ties with you!" Obito declared dramatically.
In the end, the task still fell to Kakashi.
He carefully recalled everything and wrote a detailed, two-page report describing the entire mission.
He handed it over.
Drake glanced at it… then calmly tossed it into the fire.
"Hey! Why did you burn it?!" Kakashi stared in disbelief.
"That was a perfect, accurate report!"
"I told you, let me do it. I'm great at writing essays," Obito muttered smugly.
Ignored again.
Kakashi took a deep breath and wrote a second version.
This time, he intentionally skipped most of Drake's combat details and cut it down to a single page.
Handed over.
Still went straight into the flames.
"You burned it again?!" Kakashi finally snapped.
"Too many words," Drake said flatly.
Swearing to himself that this was the last time, Kakashi wrote a third version.
No details.
No process.
Just the result.
One single line:
Team Nine obtained Iwagakure border intelligence through a transaction with Kenjirō.
That was it.
Drake read it carefully, nodded, then added another line beneath it:
Intelligence Value: 500,000 Ryō
The entire team froze.
Even Obito and Rin were speechless.
What was this?
Reverse extortion of the village?!
They remembered clearly — Drake already looted over 100,000 ryō from the dead Special Jōnin.
And now he was charging the village half a million on top of that?!
"This… this is allowed?" Obito stared at him in awe.
"That's kind of amazing…" Rin said, half-worried, half-impressed.
"You're a genius." Kakashi said sincerely.
Drake shrugged, utterly relaxed.
"After the money comes in, everyone gets 50,000 as hush money."
No pressure.
No shame.
Just business.
The Next Evening
Team Nine returned to Konoha.
As acting captain, Kakashi headed to the Hokage Tower to submit the report.
Drake, Obito, and Rin went to Training Ground Nine to wait for their share.
Sitting on the familiar rock, Drake opened his status panel.
Constitution: 288 (144 × 2) — Super Level
"So today it was constitution again…" he muttered.
"No wonder I feel ridiculously energetic."
At first, every doubling felt miraculous.
Now? He was almost getting used to it.
Hokage's Office
Hiruzen Sarutobi read the ultra-short mission report, his lips twitching.
500,000 ryō… for intel?
Then he remembered — this was the same kid who'd been gifted an entire luxury bathhouse by the Daimyō of the Land of Hot Water.
Suddenly, it all made sense.
Opening the intelligence scroll, Hiruzen skimmed through it.
"As expected… Iwa is preparing to make a move."
Reinforcing border outposts only meant one thing — they were gearing up to strike while Konoha was busy with Suna.
He looked up at Kakashi.
"This mission was handled very well."
Then he waved him off casually.
"You should all rest tonight. There will be another mission tomorrow."
And with that, he went back to his paperwork.
Kakashi hesitated.
Was the Hokage… ignoring the half-million ryō issue?
So he reminded him carefully.
"Hokage-sama… about the 500,000 ryō our team advanced for the mission—"
"Hm?"
Hiruzen's brows furrowed, his expression suddenly pained.
"Kakashi… the village budget is very tight right now. You must think of the greater good."
Meanwhile, inside, he was thinking:
You've got Drake, that walking gold mine. What's 500,000 to you people?
Back at Training Ground Nine
They were still waiting to split the money.
But something was off.
Kakashi was taking longer than usual.
"He didn't run off with the cash, did he?" Obito suddenly muttered.
"No way," Rin replied instantly. "Kakashi wouldn't do that."
"He's coming," Drake said calmly, pointing ahead.
Sure enough, Kakashi approached — empty-handed, with a troubled expression.
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