AN: This chapter took a lot longer to upload than anticipated. Much as I dread to fall into the webnovel author stereotype, real life got in the way. But I'm on summer break now so I got some time for writing again ^^

Chapter 21: Reward and Punishment

I vacantly stared at Jun's body. Her pale skin had a lacquer-like sheen to it and her joints were evidently prosthetic. She was nothing but a lifeless puppet. How could that be? I'd experienced her touch firsthand and it felt nothing like henge nor plastic or wood. Had I been under genjutsu all this time?

Hayate rushed to my side and shoved a small vial of silvery liquid in my face before I could conclude my train of thought. His voice sounded distant and unintelligible, but I understood the gist of what he wanted.

I opened my mouth and swallowed down. The antidote stung more than the poison, but I couldn't muster the energy to voice a complaint—just keeping my eyes open was hard enough. Part of me was tempted to let oblivion claim me, but that probably wasn't the best idea. I painstakingly got to my feet and went through hand signs, finally cancelling my transformation and returning to my true form.

Hayate grabbed me by the shoulders to keep me from toppling over again. "Are you alright?"

The rush of blood in my ears mostly dissipated when I turned back. "I think I'm okay, Hayate-sensei."

Hayate angled up my chin and checked my steadily slowing pulse. He let out a sigh of relief before karate chopping my head. "What the hell were you thinking!?"

"Ow." I didn't know what else to say. I was too emotionally drained to come up with an excuse and still more than a little winded from my near-poisoning.

Hayate seemed to notice as much, shaking his head in exasperation. "We can discuss this tomorrow. Let me wrap up the bodies and then we will return to the hotel," he said, following it up with a string of hand signs and encasing the rogue nin's corpse in a thin layer of earth. Jun remained uncovered. "Do you want to say goodbye?"

I sneered at the puppet. "She was a fraud to begin with."

"That doesn't mean your emotions weren't real."

I scoffed and turned away from the body. "My emotions were stupid."

Hayate sighed but didn't push, repeating his earlier technique on the puppet and sealing it off from my sight. "Can you walk on your own?"—I nodded—"Then follow me."

I stayed silent on our way back, mentally retreading everything I'd experienced that evening. In hindsight Jun's status should have been obvious—I'd literally felt the chakra strings. The only reason I didn't make the connection was because of willful ignorance. Letting myself get swayed by my teenage brain chemistry was a more serious problem than I'd flippantly made it out to be up until now.

Then again, my logical reasoning had failed me just as hard—perhaps harder—than my gut. Parting ways once we reached the city centre would have left the rogue nin free to roam around and kill more innocent kids in the slums.

Which reminds me, I still need to inform Fumito somehow.

I couldn't exactly prove that I'd been the one to get rid of the killer, nor that this rogue nin was responsible for the deaths. I probably should have taken a closer look at the corpse, though I supposed that possibility may still be open to me.

"Hayate-sensei. Is there any chance I could take a look at the bodies after all?" I asked. "I'm having trouble piecing together how I was tricked."

"That can wait until we bring them to the bounty office," Hayate replied. "Inspecting a fresh corpse in the middle of the street would not sit well with Yao's residents."

The festival only lasted another two days and I still had my original mission to complete. I couldn't afford to waste time. "Is it really okay for me to stand around in the bounty office tomorrow and leave Akuma and Yuu with all the mission work?" I asked, hoping his sense of fairness prevailed over his sense of propriety.

Surprisingly that flimsy excuse worked, or maybe Hayate just felt bad for me. He stopped in place, taking a short look around before dropping the two improvised sarcophagi on the ground. The earth crumbled away, once again revealing the dead Jun and the very dead rogue nin.

I hadn't noticed before in the dark, but the ninja looked somewhat similar to Jun. Obviously that disregarded the whole being nearly chopped in half thing, which, might I add, was super gross. She had the same lavender eyes, a similar build, and both were short haired blondes. Their biggest differences were apparent age and, to be blunt, physical beauty—once again disregarding the whole being nearly chopped in half thing.

This lady was uncannily ugly. Not in the 'oh you're just being shallow' sense, but in the 'this is literally a caricature of a C-list anime baddie' sense. It was baffling to witness since pretty much everybody in this world could fit right in on the Hollywood red carpet if measured by Earth standards. The only other person I recalled finding ugly was Chiyoko.

Was this my recurring character trope or something? Naruto faced all the big bads while I was caught up dealing with the small handful of ugly people in the world? That sounded like the total opposite of the usual isekai situation.

I'm deflecting right now, aren't I?

I should probably take a look at Jun's corpse, but there was still something else I could procrastinate with. "Hayate-sensei, does this person look familiar to you? You mentioned the bounty office earlier, so I assume that means she's in the bingo book?"

Hayate had been investigating the corpse same as me. Based on her memorable face I had to assume her entry would be seared straight into the brain's long-term storage—Or maybe I'm the only one who's this shallow.

"I am not sure… Sunagakure is rather secretive when it comes to their missing nin. They fear that foreign shinobi will track them down and steal village secrets." He gestured at Jun's puppet body. "Just like we could theoretically do right here."

"Okay… then why are we going to the bounty office?"

"Suna doesn't tend to openly advertise bounties for many of their missing nin, but they pay handsomely for any returned equipment," he explained, "Provided that it's intact, of course."

And people just do that? Give up on a treasure trove of possible knowledge for a quick buck?

On second thought, that's almost certainly what shinobi would do, especially bounty hunters who didn't have the time nor resources to conduct research. Even a major ninja village like Konoha only diverted limited attention toward developing new techniques or disciplines. Research breakthroughs were usually caused by a small handful of savants, like Orochimaru or Tobirama.

"What if I wanted to keep it?" I asked, to which Hayate responded with an unimpressed stare. "The puppet, I mean. Not the corpse."

"Satoya, as your teacher I feel I should remind you that it is unproductive to spread your focus so thin. You are limiting your potential," he reasoned—his words stung like a slap to the face. "Even should you choose to study it, I doubt there is much we can learn. This puppet clearly was not designed for direct combat. Its original purpose was likely more… debauched."

So I was almost killed by a sex doll? That's depressing.

Almost as depressing as the sad reality of Hayate's words regarding my divided focus. I'd dabbled in a great many things over the years, but had no specialty to call my own. However, to refrain from adding one more object of study wouldn't fix that. Since I wasn't supremely gifted in any one individual field of combat—Jutsu-shiki was an auxiliary skill at best—I saw no reason not to try and forge my own path of nonsense and trickery.

Puppetry would be perfect for that. If I figured out how the vision-sharing worked and how to apply a realistic transformation, I could use puppets as a low-cost scouting tool. Not only that, supplementing my clones with far sturdier puppets their combat potential would multiply manyfold. Throw in some explosives, seals and genjutsu, people would want to kill themselves out of annoyance even if I didn't score a single hit.

The fantasy urged me to put my fingertips together like a certain yellow cartoon character. "{Excellent.}"

Hayate glanced up at me from the ground—he'd knelt down and started inspecting the rogue nin's corpse while I was lost in thought. "Did you discover something?"

"Uh, no" I gave a slightly nervous laugh, "to be honest, I was gathering my thoughts on how to convince you to keep the puppet."

Hayate coughed.

"Wait wait wait! I swear I have some good ideas here. Shadow clones could work great with puppets, and who knows what else could be done if I combined them with jutsu-shiki."

His face didn't flinch, but I could practically taste his urge to facepalm from the way he kept his aura so carefully neutral. "Satoya, do you truly believe that none of our colleagues have ever thought of using stolen puppets? Puppetry is a demanding art, and Konoha has no teachers."

"I can't know until I try," I argued. "There's bound to be useful information to be gained."

Hayate's carefully maintained neutrality finally broke. "You haven't even looked at the puppet yet, stop daydreaming! What makes you believe your actions tonight even deserve a reward? You disregarded the mission you were hired to complete and almost got yourself killed!"

Part of me severely wished I could shout back at him that my detour was for the world's greater good, but my rational side pushed down my outrage. "You're right, I apologise. I sincerely did not expect things to end up this way."

Hayate took a deep breath. "And I'm sorry for getting angry like this. You just underwent a stressful situation and I understand this may be your way of handling it." He gestured to the bodies. "Let us finish things here and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we can work things through with a clear mind."

"Thank you for your understanding, sensei." That'll give me a whole 8 hours to come up with valid excuses.

I finally bent down to properly investigate the puppet body. It felt pretty close to how Jun felt. Colder now that she'd been lying around inanimate, but still unmistakably human. It wasn't like I'd ever touched a sex doll on Earth or anything—probably hard to believe—but I doubted they felt so realistic. Which left me with a rather unnerving conclusion. I unsealed a lone shuriken and scraped a long cut into her arm.

"Hayate-sensei, I think this is an actual human body," I replied, holding up the place I'd cut. It didn't bleed anymore but there was definitely muscle underneath the skin.

Hayate's eyes gained a severe intensity as he grabbed the spot I'd been showing off. His fingertip glowed a faint green.

"You know medical techniques?" I asked.

"This is a diagnostic technique. Back in the war, every genin was pushed to learn basic first aid," he said, dropping her arm with a grimace. "That aside, it seems you are right. This complicates matters…"

He didn't elaborate, but I could imagine what he was thinking. This dead ninja was more than just some no-name. The only one who should have been capable of crafting human puppets was Sasori of the Red Sand.

Hayate zipped open his flak jacket and pulled a small wallet from the inner pocket. He leafed through its contents, eventually revealing an off-white card. "Yukina Karube," he said, again quieting down in thought.

I tried to catch a glimpse at the ID card, but Hayate stowed it away.

"Another task for tomorrow," he said. "We should get some rest."

Akuma and Yuu were still out when we arrived at the room, but Hayate urged me to stay and sleep, citing that I shouldn't strain myself when the aftereffects of the poison still lingered. I spent a while sketching a portrait and thinking of what to tell Hayate tomorrow before finally closing my eyes.

A pillow to the face took the place of my regular alarm the next Morning.

"Oy, Satoya, you better not be thinking of skipping out on work for the second day in a row!" Akuma shouted far too loudly.

"I'm not," I groaned.

"And you better tell us everything about what happened," she added, poking me in the side a few times for good measure.

I tried smacking her hand, but she dodged away. "Ugh, let me at least wash up and eat breakfast first. Then I can also tell Hayate."

Yuu scoffed. "Do you think us foolish enough to believe you would hand Hayate-sensei the unfiltered truth?" He was leaning on the wall across from my bed with a smarmy grin that made my nose itch.

"Do you think I'm foolish enough to hand you the unfiltered truth?" I countered.

Yuu clicked his tongue. "If you wish for our cooperation, then you ought to be a bit forthcoming."

"Yeah, we know you totally skipped out on the whole day! You gotta give us the deets if you want us to cover for you," Akuma added, raising her chin.

They're bluffing. "I wasn't missing the whole day."

"Perhaps not…" Yuu said, a wicked grin crossing his lips, "but will Hayate trust you over us?"

I could practically feel the sharp stab of betrayal piercing my back. Had my friends always been such ruthless gossips? Their strategy didn't even make sense. Nothing stopped me from simply lying to them as well as Hayate.

Unless… no, they can't read my facial expressions that well, right?

It may be possible that my clone's behaviour tipped them off. Now that they'd had all night to discuss, perhaps they got a good estimate of how long I was missing.

Akuma jabbed me in the side again. "You better not be thinking of excuses."

"Okay! Okay. Fine, I'll tell you everything." I took a slow steadying breath and started talking.

Thank goodness I prepped for this eventuality last night.

The story was simple, playing up my impulsiveness as was in line with typical teenage behaviour. At around lunch I left them behind to get a proper meal, unwilling to finish our rations when there were so many more delicious options available. Afterwards I figured I could enjoy myself and scout around the city for a little bit. That was when I met Jun.

The rest of my retelling remained close to the truth. I lost track of time while escorting her around the festival, sensed we were followed by a malicious ninja, and informed Hayate of the situation.

Akuma punched me in the shoulder. "Why'd you leave your clone out to dry like that? We were left to do all the heavy lifting because the guy was practically shitting himself about dispelling while you were away!"

"Indeed. It is no wonder your clones act as they do when you abuse them like this," Yuu stated.

"Of all things, why focus on that?" I asked.

"Because I had already taken note of your clone's lackadaisical attitude and was curious whether it was due to dissatisfaction or caution," Hayate replied, dropping his chameleon jutsu. "I am severely disappointed in you, Satoya."

Oh shit.

Hayate was not amused. Despite Tsuruhide having refused the offer to pay less for our service, I wouldn't get to see a single cent.

My mission pay was docked, and once we got back home I'd be put on two weeks unpaid remedial desk duty. I wouldn't even get to keep my portion of the missing nin's bounty, which would instead go to Konoha's orphan fund. Finally, I also didn't get to keep Jun's puppet-corpse—though now that I knew what it was I wasn't enthused by the prospect of using it, anyway.

All things considered, I should have been happy my punishment wasn't more severe—military dictatorships weren't so kind on Earth. Still, I'd be lying if I pretended that losing out on this much money wasn't a royal pain, especially since I still had that courier delivery to pay for.

What, you thought I'd given up on my side-quest?

Obviously not. The world was at stake and I wouldn't let a little tongue lashing and lost money scare me out of doing what was right. However, I would have to go about things a bit differently than originally planned—or should I say go about them differently than what was already the backup of the original plan.

What'll this be, the backup backup backup plan? Plan D?

Before worrying about the semantics, I had to figure out how I would get 'plan D' to work. Presently my friends and I were standing at the front gate to an ostentatious residence on top of a hill. Tsuruhide had gone inside with Hayate to meet a VIP client, which made this the ideal time for an escape.

It'd be a lot harder than yesterday. I couldn't even go to the bathroom without Yuu following me, and Akuma already pinched me five times since we left the hotel. At least Hayate hadn't stabbed me with his sword… yet.

Based on the scrupulous looks he keeps shooting me I wouldn't be surprised if I end the day with a few cuts.

Whatever I chose to do would have to be handled by my clone. To be fair, after what Satwoya went through yesterday he honestly deserved some time in the spotlight anyway. While he was technically me, all those memories of my clone-self getting relegated to boring tasks added up to a baseline level of resentment whenever I realised it was 'my turn' to be the clone.

Handing Satwoya more exciting tasks would hopefully improve this situation in the long term, though that didn't mean it didn't have its drawbacks. While disguising as Jonathan had been far cheaper than even my most optimistic estimates, sending a clone would limit the available time. On the plus side, it would pose a far lower risk should I get caught or attacked.

So, what would he actually do? I couldn't just reuse the 'find criminal scum to kill' idea. The Jun ordeal had made it rather apparent I wasn't the best judge of character. Hell, that drunk who got bricked may have been sincerely worried about me, and I nearly would have killed him for it.

I hope he's alright. Maybe I should go check?

Satwoya could do that if he had extra time. Either way, the murder plan belonged in the dumpster. It was back to square one… or perhaps not. My main objective failed last night, but that wasn't the only objective I'd had. Fumito and his pals owed me a favour, and social networking could solve lots of problems. There was a decent chance they'd know someone who knows someone who could drop off a package for me.

Any plan is better than wasting time stuck in my own head.

Which brought me back to the remaining issue of how to send Satyoya on an errand without getting caught. Since Hayate wasn't present, right now was probably the best opportunity I'd get for an escape, but that didn't mean it'd be easy.

Hiding the hand sign and casting the technique quickly was simple enough, but that damn summoning chime—why did it have to translate from anime-world into reality like this? If only I really had been reborn with an RPG game system. A silent-casting perk could have spared me the headache of figuring out a distraction.

I looked at my two friends who were leaning against the property's boundary wall. Akuma's head rested on Yuu's shoulder and her spiky hair tickled his nose—the guy was really giving his all to not ruin the moment with a sneeze.

Good thing I was around to ruin it for him. "I smell romance in the air. This would make for a nice painting."

Akuma jolted upright and stepped away from Yuu. "Don't make it weird! I'm just tired. Yuu and I had to pack up shop all alone while having no idea what was going on with you and Hayate!"

"You should be ashamed to accuse us of uncouth behaviour when I am merely doing her a favour as a friend," Yuu pitched in.

"The truth is as clear as the sun in a cloudless sky. Why dost thou deny it so vehemently?" I teased, noting the way Akuma's critical gaze wandered from myself to Yuu.

It must be tough cracking through her tsun tsun to reach the dere dere.

He crossed his arms, and spoke with an upturned chin, "Your eyes deceive you, friend. That poison must have rotten your brain."

Akuma nodded along, reassured of her truth.

"Oh? So if this is truly just a favour to a friend, would Akuma enjoy a rest on my shoulder perchance?" I asked, walking up beside her. "It might be a better cushion than Yuu's."

They both looked disgusted, and Akuma pinched me in the arm. "Shaddup, you weirdo. This time you don't even have the excuse that it's your clone saying strange stuff."

I slapped my cheeks in faux realisation. "You're right! Let me rectify that." Kachow! Excuse to create clone: Acquired.

Satwoya grinned up at Akuma. "I agree with Satoya. Muscles are more comfortable than bones."

Yuu scowled. "Satoya, quit—ahem—you are still weak from yesterday's experience, do not burden yourself," he argued. "Also… I do not wish to be deprived of a comfortable resting position."

I was about to goad him some more, but Satwoya put his hand on my chest and quietly murmured, "{Gib mir das Siegel.}"

I complied with his request, and he turned back around, snapping his fingers. "I see where the problem is, you'll be envious! I have just the solution!"—he transformed into girl form and batted her eyelashes at Yuu—"What if you lean on my shoulder and Akuma leans on Satoya?"

Yuu was at a loss for words. I watched as an angry red mark popped into existence above Akuma's forehead. Satwoya rapidly shifted through hand signs, but too late to stop Akuma from smacking her in the face. I'd been a half step behind her, reaching out in an attempt to pull my clone to safety.

Too late.

My hand phased through the chakra smoke and I toppled forward onto the pavement. I looked down at the pebble that took my clone's place and gasped in horror. "You killed her, you monster!" Tears stung my eyes. "That was a sentient life you just—"

Akuma flicked me on the nose. "Don't be a drama queen."

I got back on my feet and dusted myself off, grumpily kicking the aforementioned pebble down the hill. "You're really no fun at all."

Nice job, Satoya!

After I stopped rolling, I transformed from a rock into a rat and scurried out of sight. I had to be quick—tanking a punch, a kick, and compressing my form like this burnt chakra like no tomorrow. Luckily there was a storm drain built into the street that I could squeeze my little rat body through to get out of sight.

Hopefully Fumito won't mind me smelling like a sewer.

I didn't have time to run off and take a shower at the hotel—that is, if I even managed to sneak my way into the room. Instead I followed the waterway westward as far as I could, eventually exiting through another storm drain close to the outskirt slums.

I made sure to look a bit less beaten-down than yesterday when I transformed into Jonathan, also changing the clothing to be more in line with the local style. I sped along as quickly as I could without grabbing attention and reached my destination without too much fuss… only the three men weren't waiting for me.

A brunet boy stood at the boulder instead—too young to grow more than the first few whiskers of beard hair. "Aizen-san?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I was told to wait here for you. I'll bring you to Fumito-san."

I guess it wouldn't make sense to sit around here all day just in case I showed up.

The boy led me past one of the wooden platforms left from yesterday and between a few buildings, eventually knocking on the door of a nondescript shack—it sounded a lot more solid than its shabby appearance led me to believe.

The door creaked open a tad. "Password?"

"You know me, man," my guide grumbled. "I brought the one that Boss wanted to meet."

Boss? Satoya Prime had clearly missed something big yesterday. Play it cool.

"Boy, you really ought to remember the passwords we give you," grunted the doorman. "Fine, come in."

What looked like a small house on the outside turned out to be a spacious foyer. I was told to leave my shoes at the entrance, but, "I'd prefer not. It may be customary for you, but all of this shady business is setting me on edge. I'd prefer not to risk walking home barefoot."

Truthfully I did not care whether I was barefoot or not. The problem was that, as a chakra construct, the shoes would suspiciously disappear soon after they were disconnected from my body. The bouncer glared at me, but didn't force the issue.

"Fumito-san will be here soon," the large man said, looking over at the boy who brought me here.

"Ah, right," the boy said, scurrying back out the door.

The bouncer then led down some steps and into an underground cellar where I was told to take a seat in an old leather chair and wait until Fumito arrived. The room was sparsely decorated save for a desk, two chairs, and a few wall-mounted lights. The grumpily glaring bouncer didn't help the mood. Thankfully it didn't take too long for Fumito to arrive.

"Aizen-san, it is most pleasing to see you again so soon," he stated, sitting down in the far nicer plush chair across from me. He wore a smile that did not reach his eyes. "To reintroduce myself, my name is Fumito Furukawa, a senior member of the Harazaki group."

I gave him a blank look. "Am I supposed to know what that is?"

"I suppose it is of no significant importance to you. What may indeed be important, is that we know who you are," he said, steepling his fingers. "Or more accurately, we know who you are not, Aizen-san. We know that nobody under that name has recently migrated to the city."

I crossed my arms and scooted back into my chair. "Oh? Might I know where you heard that?"

"I'm afraid not," Fumito said. "Just know that it was a close thing to convince my Lieutenant not to bury you alive for your deception. Count yourself lucky that it is not him you are facing."

This 'Lieutenant' is probably just scared of being alone in a room with me.

"Killing me would have been a rather poor reward for dealing with your disappearance problem," I deadpanned, taking out the paper storage seal that Satoya prime had handed me earlier.

When I applied the necessary chakra to unseal my documents, Fumito froze in place and his aura went taut. Ignoring his shock, I plucked the sheet lying atop the released envelope—a hand-drawn portrait depicting one person on each side.

"The person behind the murders was Yukina Karube, true name Hiromi Hasumi. She is a missing nin of Sunagakure no Sato."—I flipped over the sheet—"Jun Kasou, likely the first victim, was turned into her human puppet and used as bait to draw in further targets."

Fumito's aura hitched and his eyes widened ever so slightly. "Are we to simply take your word that she is responsible?"

"I'm sure whatever connection of yours did a background check on me can confirm that the rogue ninja in question was turned in at Yao's bounty office earlier today."

Fumito grumbled, gesturing at the thick packet that remained. "And what is the rest of this?"

"My favour," I replied. "I want you to hand this bundle of documents to the courier ninja service to be delivered to Konohagakure no Sato without delay. The payment is included."

Fumito leaned forward and gave the bundle an appraising look. "Is that all?" He didn't sound convinced.

"There is one more thing," I said, straightening my back. "I would also like to learn of Hiromi Hasumi's lodgings. It seems to me like you have some idea who she is."

He gave me an appraising look, leaning back in his chair and releasing a breath. "Not the kunoichi, Jun. She was a friend of Yasuho's."

"I take it you know where Jun lives, then? I would prefer getting escorted there as soon as possible. There may be information of interest to Sunagakure no Sato." May as well throw them off my scent.

"Yes, of course," Fumito affirmed. "I will arrange for an escort to take you there while I handle the package."

"Good," I said simply, before gesturing to the documents. "And a word of advice, don't stick your nose where it does not belong. My partners are not as forgiving as I."

His gaze was firm and aura steady as he gave his assent.