Kiko Maris Hatake

Am I getting paid?

It's 00:54 and all is well. Blame disney's Robin Hood for the frasing. Anyway since we are 54 minutes into my birthday I'll give ya'll this chapter; enjoy! 😄

Boats are still awful, but they're so much more fun, when Otou-sensei is there to have fun with. One of the sailors taught me to play poker; I won lots of money! Though Otou-sensei wasn't too happy with me playing poker, I honestly think that it's because I beat him twice.

Not my fault that he got a tell.

Anyway after what felt like forever the boat was put in at the harbor and once again I was walking on clouds, well in a mist, but same difference. Otou-sensei followed my lead, since he was only there as back-up or so he and Tsunade agreed on, and he snuck into Kirigakure together with me, silently, far from the actual gate. It's not that I'm impolite and refuse to use the gate; it's more of a principle matter. I'm not sure what the principle is yet, but it's there. It's probably a 'because I can'-thing.

Otou-sensei only shook his head, though he looked fondly at me, when I glanced at him. I gave him a grin, before I ran off towards the Mizukage's office, where I might, might not, have broken in. Otou-sensei only chuckled and followed me inside, where I made myself at home on her desk, Otou-sensei only rested against the wall behind him as lazy as ever.

I was considering reading some of the files that was on the table, but Otou-sensei was plucking the files from my hand long before I could read them and placing them back on the table exactly where I had picked it up from. Not minutes after he had plucked the 10th file from me with a laugh the door opened to show the Mizukage and her two guards, her head was turned to say something to somebody behind her, but she swung around to face us, when her two guards dropped to the floor all of a sudden, dropping their weapons in front of them. Who knew that they'd still remember that? ^_^'

She completely froze and seemed slightly disappointed, yet weirdly happy or satisfied. Then she just sighed with a small smile and moved to receive the scroll.

"You know; we have a gate for a reason." She commented amused as she read through the scroll quickly. "And we got security, security that I would like to think is better than you make it seem... We even tightened up to try and catch you..."

She's pouting, actually pouting. Isn't the children supposed to do the pouting? I'm pretty sure that the adults I know pout more than the children I know. The Mizukage leaned against the desk besides me as she read, surprisingly close.

"But no, not only didn't we catch you, when you entered the village, but you weren't even alone and you managed to get all the way into the Mizukage's office." She sighed once more and quickly wrote a message on a scroll and handed it to me, who handed it to Otou-sensei, who handed it to one of his dogs that then disappeared. The Mizukage blinked at that, but ultimately just shook her head in good humor.

"So any particular reason that any mission requests for you these last few years were denied?" She asked curiously, making me look to Otou-sensei, who quickly took over. "Were you on a mission? Hopefully you've been paid accordingly, if not you might have to consider finding another job, not that it'll be a problem for somebody with your abilities. Actually we have a job opening-"

"The Bird was out of commission for a while, Mizukage-sama. As you have been told before." He cut in sounding annoyed, I glanced at him and hid a smile at the pissed off look in his eyes.

So Otou-sensei doesn't like people trying to headhunt me?

"I'm well aware of the excuse that the leaf has been using." The Mizukage sighed and turned her attention towards Otou-sensei. "Is that why you're here, to make sure The Bird sticks to the story?"

Otou-sensei looked her straight in the face with a blank expression waiting for several seconds, just watching her, before he simply answered: "Iie."

On his mark we both instantly left, behind me I could hear a few shocked gasps. I couldn't help but giggle and Otou-sensei wasn't late in joining me with his chuckles. Once we arrived to the d*mned piece of floating wood that should take us to our next destination and it sat off, I found myself watching Otou-sensei upside down. I was the one that was upside down hanging in the ropes of the mast, watching an amused Otou-sensei.

"Say, am I getting paid?" I asked with a head tilt.

"Of course." Otou-sensei told me with a confused face. "I put it in a savings account for you, but after everything that's happened recently I had it changed so that you could access it. Ebisu was supposed to show you how the other day."

"He was busy." I told him with a laugh, wiggling a little in the ropes.

"With?" He asked with an angry look in his eyes.

"Nagging and monologuing." I answered and wiggled once more.

"I'll handle it when we get home. Now come on, let's go get something to eat." He smiled a closed eyed smile at me, before turning and walking towards the canteen, but he stopped and looked confused when I didn't follow him.

"Eh." I grinned at his back, but didn't run up to him as I usually would.

"Eh?" He asked and turned back towards me to look at me.

"Ehhhhhh..." I grinned once more, making him raise an eyebrow at me.

"Kiko." He said, while looking expectantly at me, making me wiggle embarrassed.

"I'm stuck..."