You can't even bring yourself to look back at the battlefield as you maneuver carefully (or as carefully as you can with the contract-bearer tailing you) around the back of the Iwa camp. You chose this route because it had the lowest chance of you and your tail running into any other ninja, which works out.
"Hey. Hey. Hey hey," After a few hours it becomes impossible to shut out the contract-bearer.
"Yes?" you hiss out, barely hearing your own voice over the pounding of blood in your ears.
"I've been trying to get your attention for hours now! For a ninja you've got zero awareness, did you know that? Of course you didn't," he continues prattling on in his grating voice. You wonder if it would have hurt the One Tail if you injured it, considering its entire body seems to be made out of sand.
"Why did you want to talk to me?"
He scoffs, "I didn't say that, I just said I wanted your attention. Am I in safe hands with you and Ame? They promised I would be, but you were just as eager to run out of that fight as I was."
He tightens up when you grab him by the forearm, dragging him off the road. "We're stopping here for the night, I want to get an early start tomorrow," is all you offer. You've already reached the Land of Mountains, so you'll be safe to rest, barring animal attacks. And you don't have to worry about those.
Not fielding any further questions, not that you answered any before, you keep watch as your client falls asleep, still grasping the scroll in his arms.
Over the course of the next few hours, you find yourself inevitably thinking back to the One Tail, and the two Iwa-nin you fought alongside. Without the client's constant nagging or your own neurotic self-reflection (though the latter is still trundling along somewhere in the back of your head), thinking back on the pair of Iwa-nin proves worthwhile. The shape of 'Iruka's chakra cloak, their eagerness in giving you false names, the fact both of them seemingly had kekkei genkai, and 'Etekou's seeming familiarity with Tailed Beasts that he nearly covered up. Yes, they were definitely Iwa's jinchuuriki. How lucky you were to have run into them! How lucky you were to have fought with them!
And you just walked away from that…
The scream of realization you let out wakes up your client, though you play it off.
"There was a bear, they don't like that noise," before he can butt in, you continue, "anyway it's time to get going anyway, so let's go!"
He's relatively quiet until the sun begins to rise.
"Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey."
"Yes?"
"My feet are getting sore. I'm pretty tired still, you don't look that strong-" of course he couldn't sugarcoat it "-but you're a ninja so you've got to be pretty strong right? Can you carry me?"
…
A good enemy ninja ambush, problems at any of the international borders, even a good bandit attack. Anything that would have made the journey back to Ame more interesting that could have happened, didn't.
Even the guards on the Land of Storms' border barely give you pause, and before you know it (not really, but all the days bled together thanks to your intolerable companion) you're back in the familiar skyscrapers of Amegakure. And thankfully, finally, the contract-bearer is taken away from you by a pair of jounin.
You don't even get to go home before Lord Hanzo calls you for an audience again.
"Jounin Kaguya," his gravelly voice carries over his audience chamber, after having left you alone and kneeling for about ten minutes. "Your mission in the Land of Demons was a success."
For some reason, it's hard for you to accept his praise.
"Tell me why, then, are you so tense and dissatisfied?"
"Apologies, Lord Hanzo," you reply loudly and clearly, still looking at the floor, "but during my mission I encountered a very lucrative situation which, for the mission's sake, I was forced to turn away from."
"I see," his tone is unchanging, "I see, also, that there is something else on your mind."
"Yes, Lord Hanzo," for the first time, you allow your eyes to move, and you see only the expected elites besides yourself and Lord Hanzo, "I came into contact with, and fought the Jinchuuriki of the One Tail. A monk by the name of Chabin, loyal to Sunagakure."
"Interesting, you may raise your head," you do as he says, and the look in his eyes tells you to continue.
"I am unsure if the jinchuuriki survived, as I escaped the battlefield to complete my mission before confirming the kill, though he was in dire straits before fully transforming. More important than this, however, I fought the Beast alongside two Iwa-nin who I strongly suspect are their own jinchuuriki."
"I see," Lord Hanzo is unmoving, his tone still unchanged, but part of you knows the energy in the room is now different. "For a long time we've known Iwagakure possessed two jinchuuriki, but only the Four Tails' has been identified."
"I do not know which was which, but the older of the two used an odd expression of Lava Style, and physically he was a shorter man with red hair and a beard-"
Lord Hanzo nods, "That is Roshi, the Four Tails."
"His companion was also male, very tall, and wore a red suit of armor with some kind of kettle on the back," you continue, "he utilized steam to enhance his attacks, and at one point I saw him form a chakra cloak which was in the shape of a tailed, horned beast."
"Yes, that would be the Five Tails," his stance slackens a bit, "I can safely assume that you learned neither of their names?"
"They gave me pseudonyms, Lord Hanzo."
"Of course," Lord Hanzo nods, "you are dismissed Jounin Kaguya. Expect your next mission within the week."
You bow your head, backing out of the room.
"Jounin Tsubaki," two of Lord Hanzo's compound's maids appear next to you in one of the corridors, one of them addressing you. "Lord Honda extends his invitation to you once again, he wishes for us to tell you that his offer from the last time you were here remains open."
[] Excellent! You were just thinking of a way to work off some stress, not to mention get some of your pent-up aggression out. Meet the heir in his chosen arena and fight him.
[] No, some mundanity would do you far better at the moment. Go home and see your mother, though you don't have to share with her the fact you met and were involved in a battle with jinchuuriki.
[] No, you'd rather work through the nagging voice in the back of your head yourself. Get some rest at home, then throw yourself into some well-informed yet destructive training.
[] There are too many people you would rather see than the heir to count. If you're right about deployment times, some of your old teammates should still be in the village right now, and it's been a while since you hung out in any meaningful way.
[] If you wanted to decrease your intelligence, you would spend time with your head held underwater. No, you want to expand your horizons, seek out Youme-sensei, or at least someone on her level should she be unavailable. You know of a few Ame elites who might be interesting, and would probably be interested in you.
