Naruto : The System Files

Chapter no.119 Office Life

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Naruto breathed in deeply and entered the Mission Assignment Desk. The Hokage owned the boy a jutsu and it was the perfect occasion to mend some bridges and act on his decision.

No one paid any attention to Naruto when he crossed the room. The ninjas working at the Desk were by now all used to seeing the blond boy sit to the Hokage's right. As time had passed, more and more shinobis were now greeting Naruto rather cordially, some with a smile even. The blond had proved he could work right and had never burdened the office with a mistake as of yet, which had certainly mellowed the opinion of the more unsure chunin present in the room.

Naruto bowed to the Hokage, who was already sitting in his chair, getting ready for the day. "Hello, Sarutobi-sama."

The Hokage sighed imperceptibly and waved the formality away like he had been doing for the past few weeks. "Hello, Naruto."

The boy nodded and sat at his place and started to examine the various "orders" coming from all around Fire Country and beyond.

The shinobi business was a strange world. All requests could not rightly be accepted, of course. It was, supposedly, the difference between ninjas sent by a hidden village and rogues: in the former case, the missions were more or less legally approved by a higher corpus of laws, in the latter case they were not.

People could not ask Konoha to just murder their ex-wife, or their mother-in-law, no matter how much money they were ready to spend. It was illegal. Or rather, you had to possess the political clout of a Daimyo to do so and even then, it was bad taste to be discovered. Cold-blooded murder outside of battle was frowned upon and assassination was not that common of a political move.

Subtler manipulations and set-ups were okay but even then, there was a problem. Konoha had a double alliance with the ruling family of Fire Country. Firstly, against a sum of gold paid each year by the Daimyo, the Leaf had to answer all calls to arm as long as they were defensive. Secondly, in exchange for monopoly over certain market opportunities, Konoha was not to take any action that could damage the royal family and it was sometimes difficult to puzzle if a mission could have such consequences.

Those were the two official terms and Naruto had no doubt there was more to it. ANBU would not have existed otherwise.

As for the rest of the countless nobles of various importance swarming the luxurious corridors of the Red Castle, they were fair game -patrons or targets- as long as the Daimyo had not given them a jade pendant. The strangest of things was that, despite the menace of Konoha shinobi storming their house, the nobles kept plotting and scheming, including against the royal family.

One solution found by the nobles to survive was to create a status quo. Konoha shinobis were the only ninja authorized to operate in Fire Country. As such, they were the only line of defense against their own, as they obviously would not fight each other. Nobles would thus pay for a team of shinobi to escort them, nullifying any team hired by a rival to kill them. All that was encouraged by the Hagasuma royal family and carefully monitored by Konoha. It kept the nobles busy and poor. From the court of the Red Castle originated more than half of all the Hidden Leaf's revenues, subventions included.

The Hagasuma clan had truly proved to be the rattlesnakes in the vipers' nest when they had first secured an exclusive alliance with Konoha, some sixty years ago. It had allowed them to form Fire Country and rule it, after all.

The blond flipped through the papers. There were three reports about the escort teams of two counts and one viscount needing to rotate out. Naruto quickly checked the conformity of the payment and stamped it. Three standards B-rank missions for three standard chunin teams.

For a few hours, the boy worked through the files on his desk. Some were internal Konoha business to be given to the shinobi of the inner-barracks, including the rookie teams, some were important contracts from towns and merchant companies that would need a dispatch from the outer-barracks. Naruto verified the payment, analyzed the request, graded the mission, and wrote his recommendation as to the type of team needed.

The task was quite unequally stimulating, considering the mission could range from weeding a garden out to chasing down a wanted criminal. It was not without relief that Naruto heard the bell signifying it was time for lunch. The blond put down his pen -a modern model with a ball at the tip- and stretched as a few ninjas, a genin team to be exact, brought the food. Naruto grinned slightly when he saw who was carrying the takeaway boxes.

"Hello, guys." The blond greeted cheerfully.

"Hey Naruto," answered a lazy Shikamaru Nara while Choji waved. Ino looked away as if the walls were more interesting than him. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

He swore he saw a blush on Ino's cheeks.

Shikamaru sighed and Choki smiled while eating.

"So, did you succeed with the mission?" The blond asked team seven with a sideways grin.

Shikamaru sighed, his arms hanging by his side as if weighing tons.

"Troublesome. We lost a box. You could have warned us."

Naruto shrugged. "You're clever enough to figure it out by yourself." The boy shrugged again.

"Next, I can give you the chase where you need to "poison" the food. Or is that too troublesome?"

"Ya know," said Choji in between munches. "I never thought D-rank could be simulations."

"Well..." Naruto threw a glance at the ninjas in the room. "When you work at the desk, you realize almost all D-ranks have a hidden simulation purpose. Why do you think we allow Madame Shimiji to regularly "lose" her cat?" The blond asked in a conspiring tone, mimicking quotation marks to put emphasis on "lose".

"Troublesome. She is your partner in crime." It was not a question and Naruto only sent a wide smile Shikamaru's way.

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"That totally means yes. Troublesome." The lazy Nara looked up before his gaze swept across the large room. "How much for you to pretend it's not available the next time we are here?"

Naruto snorted and held back his laugh. "Is it that terrible?"

"More than you think, Naruto." Choji munched unhappily.

"Team seven, with me," suddenly drawled the white-haired jonin responsible for the Ino-Shika-Cho new generation trio.

"Well, enjoy your afternoon guys."

"Pff, we are gonna run and spar, so troublesome."

The blond had to hold back the urge to squarely punch the Nara in the face, knowing that the pineapple-haired boy would actually thank him for that. "It won't hurt you to move your lazy ass. You'll end up round as an Akimichi but it'll be all grease and no muscles contrary to them!"

"Less troublesome than running."

"You can't invent such laziness, you have to see it." Naruto mumbled, rolling his eyes. "Bye Choji. Bye Ino."

"Bye Naruto," answered a lone, if enthusiastic, Choji.

The blond turned to the tables where the lunch boxes had been opened and sat. Naruto fought a smile when he saw the content of the takeaway. Apparently, today was Sushi Day.