Naruto : The System Files

Chapter no.110 Hokage Tower

What Naruto had dreaded the most was his work at the Tower in the presence of the Hokage but even that was going well. The blond did not know exactly what he had feared but his surrogate grandfather had maintained a professional behavior, not pushing Naruto on personal matters, and otherwise proved to deserve his title of "Professor".

Evaluating a mission -bare the D-ranked ones, which, to Naruto's horror truly existed- was like piecing a puzzle. Who was paying for it? What were the objectives? What were the declared dangers? What were the undeclared dangers? Those questions were all pieces of information that Naruto had to answer and bring together to get a general picture of the request.

It was similar to Tiger's exercise and Naruto understood that what he was doing was basically getting the knowledge in place of the ninjas who would be dispatched. It was certainly less exciting than getting to do the mission himself but it was no less an important step. Once he saw it as a game of sort -a game with very high stakes, he supposed- he even found the activity enjoyable if slightly frustrating.

It was also interesting to discover how the multitude of requests came and went to Konoha. The Communication Tower was constantly receiving missions from offices spread over Fire Country in every major towns and villages of enough importance. The demands were carried over to the mission desk, processed, and if a request was accepted as a job, an answer was sent back via the Communication Tower.

When Naruto asked why the demands were not processed locally, the Hokage simply reminded him that only he had the power to officially send ninjas on a mission and that his shinobi were all stationed in Konoha anyway. It also explained why Konoha was hidden roughly in the center of Fire Country: all borders were at equidistance and outposts could be reached by reinforcement equally quickly.

The best part was the free lunch. Even if he was a clone, the Naruto replica did not hesitate to gorge himself with whatever was delivered to the chunin and the Hokage. It was part of his cover after all. Him eating nothing would have alerted the ninja working with him.

The first time he had eaten sushi, the clone had silently laughed, reminded of a prank from more than a year past. He had caught on a certain ritual of the Hokage: Thursday was sushi day. Naruto had spent weeks working on recreating the very specific box of sushi his grandfather liked and had one day replaced the original with one of his own creation.

With extra wasabi under the fish topping.

It had been the blond's most expensive prank ever but worth it. Even the Hokage had been unable to prove anything. Sushi day had since then been randomized.

It was early on Thursday afternoon and one Naruto-clone was sitting on the Hokage's left, prepping his desk for the second half of his day's work. The bell signaling the door of the office opening jiggled but Naruto did not look up, already used to the vaguely annoying chime.

"Hello, Hokage-sama," called a grave, male voice with mirth.

Naruto lifted his eyes with a smile on his face. He immediately took stock of Asuma Sarutobi standing in front of the mission desk.

"Hello, Naruto." The tall, black-bearded jonin greeted.

"Hey, Asuma." The blond answered with a wave and a grin before it faltered.

Behind the jonin stood three of his ex-classmates.

Hinata Hyuga simply looked at him for a second before she glanced down at her feet. Sasuke Uchiha was sporting his mask of indifference and his sneer of contempt. Kiba Inuzuka just had an insufferable smile on his face.

"Ha, what'cha doing here loser?" The wild looking Inuzuka exclaimed uproariously, pointing a mocking finger at the blond.

Naruto smiled and watched as Kiba was immediately smacked on his head by Asuma.

"Naruto has a headband Kiba, he is working as a ninja but on a different mission."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he took in the sight of Naruto's hitai-ite. Hinata smiled at naruto.

"What! How did he get it?! He failed!"

"That is none of your concern Kiba." Asuma admonished sternly. "All ninjas are approved by Hokage-sama. If Naruto has a headband, he deserves it, period."

"That's favoritism!" Protested the feral looking boy.

"Kiba!" Asuma shouted menacingly. "I do believe I'm a patient man but if you don't drop it right now, you'll get what's coming for you. Naruto is a genin, period. Now let's get our mission."

Cowed by the sudden threatening tone of his sensei, Kiba decided it wise to remain silent. As the team took their mission, Sasuke ignored the blond and Hinata shot him a look as if apologizing for Kiba, Naruto just waved off her worries.

If Naruto wanted, the mutt would have been eating from a straw in the ICU.

.....

The encounter with Team 8 – Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, and their masked, white-haired jonin sensei was something else.

Naruto began, "Team 8, please wait until the hokage is done with his meeting."

Choji absentmindedly opened a bag of chips and began munching, clearly not sensing the importance of the moment.

"Looks like you became a ninja, huh, Naruto. Well, it would be surprising if you...."

Shikamaru kicked Choji to shut him up as he scratched the back of his head. "So what happened?"

"I passed the exam but due to my pranks and some other stuff, I have to now work at the tower for a year."

Ino, however, looked at Naruto in disbelief.

"Wait, so does that mean you are going to be left behind? That's not fair."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at Ino's comment, he could see that she didn't mean anything malicious but if he was being honest, the current him could probably kill team 8 will relative ease. The jonin however would give him trouble.

Left Behind?! pfft

Behind her, their jonin sensei, engrossed in a little orange book, didn't react at all, seemingly oblivious to the situation.

Naruto kept his cool, maintaining the calm demeanor fitting of an ANBU. "Don't worry, Ino, I deserve this. Plus it's not like I am not keeping up with my training."

But Ino's anger was palpable. "Hey, do you think we should talk the hokage? Letting Naruto in during our training sessions."

"That's a great idea." Choji commented while eating.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru said while he couldn't say anything with certainty, something has happened with his friend and it's more than likely serious, considering he could see all the normal cues that Naruto normally has were gone. Like somewhat fidgeting his fingers whenever they talked, it was gone.

"Naruto, did you have anything to eat?" Ino calmly said causing Choji to drop his chips, Kakashi to stop reading and Shikamaru to sigh.

"Yeah, I had this nice red bean soup just a few minutes ago."

"~Slap~"

The slap of Kakashi, Shikamaru and Choji facepalming echoed throughout the hall confusing Naruto as he saw Ino looking at him with anger.

"Forget it! Enjoy that bean soup and I hope you get diarrhea!"

Ino stormed off causing Naruto to scratch his head.

"Was it something I said?"