The return to Konoha was quick and without incident. Considering that we were moving at the speed of the slowest member of the delegation, it gave Orochimaru and I a chance to have a very thorough discussion on various scientific topics, which made the other ninja running nearby curl their ears into a tube from various specific terms that only a sufficiently educated and experienced iryonin could understand.
Naturally, we did not raise really important topics to avoid them, but even so, we were able to exchange experience on a number of problems of restoring affected organs in the human body, including with the help of a research complex in addition to the medical one.
Orochimaru was delighted with the possibilities they offered for a serious researcher and tried to ask me if I had anything else in the Fuin Master's arsenal that would be as useful and interesting.
Promising the jonin to drop by the other day and demonstrate a few seals that I used myself, I mentally checked another box and suggested a joint study of the swordsmen's bodies.
Naturally, the snaky sannin grasped the opportunity with both hands, not caring how it looked from the side of the companions - he had never had such material in his hands before. However, neither had I, so I was full of enthusiasm for future cooperation. All in all, the travel time was not wasted.
Fortunately, I wasn't on an official mission, and the Konoha Council had already read most of the report, so when I returned to the village, only Orochimaru had to report to the leadership, while I and the rest of the delegation went home to report to our clan heads on the current situation in Suna.
Since Hyuga was the only one from the clan alliance - Uncle Hyuga probably didn't think it was a good idea to send extra people when I was already there - I had to check in with him first and give him a verbal report before I could go home.
Thanks to the kage bunshin I had left behind, most of the things I had planned to do were done, the female students were not interrupting the training process, and everything was calm and measured, allowing me to breathe easy and not worry about having to do something urgent again right now. I don't know what I'd do without shadow clones. I'd probably be dead from work.
Of course, that didn't take away from the fact that family and loved ones demanded attention - like all women in general, kunoichi or not - so I didn't have time for myself until more than a week later.
It could have been sooner, but rumors of what had happened in Sunagakure spread through Konoha very quickly, as did my heavy involvement in the whole thing, along with the killing of three Mist swordsmen.
So, it was no surprise that soon a very large portion of friends and acquaintances rushed to learn the information firsthand, disguising it as a desire to congratulate me on such a successful hunt.
Tsume and Ishi joined forces and came to visit, bringing their offspring, which pleased my women of all ages, and of course, no one was going to let me go to the basement. Yoshi and Kei did the same thing, not to be outdone by their former teammates.
And despite having plans, I was genuinely happy to see them, exchanging news in the time we hadn't met. Tsume-chan, who I visited at least once every couple of weeks or so, and Yoshi, who was mostly in the village because of his position and work, but the regular shinobi had to go on missions all the time, and I didn't get to see them as often.
I've got more interesting stuff on patreon (+ 200 chapter)
patreon.com/Chill76