The trip back home was uneventful, thank all good gods.

It felt like they'd carved out a significant portion of the local population with their hunting. How exactly that was to make one feel emotionally is a matter of opinion. In any case, all three of them felt quite relieved seeing the first of the simple wooden structures. Naruto turned eagerly towards the inn and was yanked none too gently by the collar.

"Naruto. Remember that whole 'we are effectively carrying 160 gold casually on our person' thing?!" Sasuki hissed. "You go straight to the claims office to turn in the ears and claim that bounty on the hag, then take the coins back to her house and bury them somewhere. I've got some haggling to do," she ordered, sounding smug more than upset by the end of her carefully considered plan.

All her stooge could think about was the faint dampness from the bag firmly shoved into his hands.

Yeah, turning those in asap was best.

Fortunately, the claims office was one of the few buildings in this glorified hamlet that had a clear, visible sign. That was especially useful since the building was little more than a shack, one of the smallest ones here. The emblem was right there though. A crude sword pointed downward. Simple, but it did its job. It certainly got this particular illiterate, naïve youngster to his destination. Naruto found himself smiling, albeit in more relief than anything else, as he swung through the simple doorway.

The woman who greeted him didn't smile back.

All the same, he quickly dropped the sickeningly moist bag on the desk dominating the room and hiding half of her body from him. Her dark green eyes glanced at it for about half a second before bouncing back to his.

She had a powerful, dominating stare.

"More ears?" she asked.

"Yes madam,"

"Greaaat, do you know how many?"

"160 even," he offered. His smile almost returned at the figure, the reminder of his payday to come. It raised her brow in any case. She even reached one hand to lift the bloody bag, get a feel for the weight. Her nails were kempt and colored, a dark green just a shade lighter than her eyes. The sandy blonde hair she carried was long and clean as well, he'd never seen such a style either, bound into four sharp ponytails all about her skull.

The beautiful woman had Naruto suddenly self-conscious about his own state, having just spent over half a week sweating through the woods.

"Sorry about the stink," he half-joked, tugging at his own cloak.

"You stink less than these," she waved off, slipping free the string around the purse bag and indeed freeing a faint rotting smell that wafted over the entire room. Naruto did his best to ignore it as she began counting. "You know-" she began, not looking up but firmly capturing his attention. "-this is impressive. Most folks come back with 10 or less, you must have killed practically a whole tribe, congrats," the woman offered, almost like she was making a concession.

"Well uh, my friends deserve most of the credit,"

"Ha, tell them they've done more for this town than the sheriff has in his whole worthless life," she spat at him, making no effort to hide the contempt in her voice. Though Naruto smiled at the remark. Even nodded as he replied.

"Yeah, I heard about that thing with Ts-the hag shooting at someone like, over a week ago. Lost about all respect for the man as soon as I did,"

The woman actually smiled as she laughed.

"You know what he does all day when he's supposed to be working this desk? He sits on his ass in the woods and either sleeps or cloud watches, for hours a day,"

"By the abyss," he muttered, irritation flamed. "So what you're like his employee or family?"

"His wife," she offered casually, beginning her grisly counting work with the contents of the bag. Either not noticing or not caring about the way he tensed up at her revelation. All the same, he kept his lips pursed until every last one of the bloody bits was piled opposite the bag.

"A hundred-sixty even," she proclaimed, sounding almost surprised. "Give me a minute to go downstairs, you get a shiny gold coin for each pair,"

"Great! Wait what? Each pair?"

"Yeah," she replied, sounding defensive, picking up on his concern and not seeming particularly pleased by it. Her eyes became hard, almost like she was daring him to say a word about it. Naruto swallowed before speaking.

"Are you sure it's not a gold each?"

"It is, a gold for each you kill, last I checked fangfolk have two ears," she mocked lightly.

"Oh fucking hell," he grumbled.

"Yeah, however will you buy bread with only eighty gold coins? It's only… what, a couple dozen livestock? A few hundred crates of grain?"

"Yes 80 gold is a lot of money I know, it's also how much money I effectively just lost, so-" he cut himself off. "Whatever, it's not your fault what the rate is, just get me my 80, please," he spoke tersely, falling into his dread of what Sasuki was going to say at the bad news. At how disappointed she was going to be.

He was still thinking about it when the jingling bag was plopped on the desk.

"Thank you, really," he offered, tone gentler as he scooped it up. "Uh one other thing, we did kill that hag north of town do you give us the deed or…" he trailed off as her eyes widened once more.

"Yeah, I can take care of that, get a deed written up and stamped off. Do you have any proof?"

"I mean… you're free to come inspect the house, we're already living there, more or less," he offered.

"Inviting me back to your house eh? I told you I'm a married woman," she teased.

Unfortunately, this teasing was completely lost on Naruto.

"Oh no there's like three women who live there and one who should be there right now, it's not like that at all!" he insisted, earning a chuckle from the woman now eyeing him over.

"You know what? I think I'll take your word for it," she offered coyly. "I should have a deed ready for you in a couple of days if you want to drop back in. I'm here practically every day," she grumbled those last few words.

"Ah, well… I'll just come back then," he offered, not sure what else to say, still feeling a bit nervous under her gaze even as that coy smile remained on her face.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped outside.

Then he remembered the bad news that he had to break to Sasuki. How the hell was he so stressed and miserable when he was carrying 80 fucking gold coins? They could live off that for the rest of their lives! They'd have to buy a good stock of goats or something and clear land for them to graze but still!

But still.

Fuck he hated disappointing the princess.

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