Hikari; Cataclysm

Chapter 1

The day was unequivocally uneventful for me. Despite having to deal with the mountainous pile of labor extensive paperwork that was increasing every time I had turned away out of spite just for the sake of procrastination, it just had to be done on this quaint desk of this depressing, dark, bland, and scarcely furnished office of mine. It used to be worse but this had certainly topped those worst days easily and thus I was stuck there throughout the day and into the night. Suna and Konoha had been working closely with one another since the recent Chuunin exam. Foundation Anbu had been tasked to closely monitor the two countries' safety during the exam, a kind gesture from the Hokage that was willingly sharing resources with the Kazekage. At least, that was what people were allowed to know if they got a high enough pay grade. It was my own suggestion to the Hokage herself. It was a brilliant plan because some of the Suna ninjas were about to evoke a coup on Gaara. I had personally stopped such things from happening to Gaara though. Foundation Anbu had since been operating under the watchful eyes of the two Kages.

How of a tiresome time to be living in. The desk was littered with intels, mission reports, and candidate lists for new Foundation Anbu operatives that I was compiling with Sai-san. I was happy to see a number of my friends interested in joining the ranks of Foundation Anbu. Neji's application was on top of my priority lists, although I think that he would be much suited to serve directly under the Hokage in the Black Ops. There was one other missive that I was expecting today, Fu's report on his current assignment. My pen scratched the paper loudly as it glided on it to form words in the reports I was reviewing. The sound was filling up this empty room and enthralled me deep into what I was doing right then.

'Hmm, you seemed to be highly immersed in that particular document, is there anything fancy in there?' someone loudly said. In a surprise, my blood pressure skyrocketed as the blood left my heart at a rapid pace and of course, my breathing stopped as a familiar black cat registered in my peripheral view at the left corner of my desk. It took me a few moments to level out my nerves and the cat waited expectantly for my reply.

'At the very least, announce your entrance, Juzo-san,' I chided the old cat.

'It's not my fault that you are so distracted, Wasure Rareta Hito*,' the taciturn ninneko said as he chuckled at my exasperation as the familiar black, mahogany scroll with a Mangekyou insignia puffed into existence. In turn, a timid knock was heard from the door. I gestured at the doors for the cat's sake in the hope that he would learn some more human mannerisms that he lacked thereof. I quickly hid the scroll in my flak jacket.

'Come in,' I announced and the door creaked open. The familiar Aburame walked into my office with a piece of paper in his hand. Torune had been on the roster with Fu since I sent him on a mission to follow my best friend and my senior on their journey. They both hadn't been doing it in secret, instead, they went about without masks and voluntarily followed the idiots literally. It's not like I was against it, it's just that they had been helping Naruto on his study with Jiraiya-senpai. I could only hope that the knucklehead didn't trouble my operatives. What I meant was that Naruto isn't the most diligent student when it comes to studying. Both of them hadn't made any indications that something bad had happened and I am not inclined to ask them.

'Ossu, Boss! Sorry to bother your discussion with Juzo-dono, but this just came in this morning,' Torune cheerily said as he passed me a scroll he had and I quickly caught it before I read the contents. It was encoded, of course, Sai had been very helpful in teaching me the Foundation Anbu signature secret codes for reading the encrypted messages. A smile made its way to my face.

'I see, they are coming home,' I breathed and Torune managed to chuckle. One thing I had noticed is that both Torune and Fu had become somewhat loosened up and absorbed a bit of my senpai and my friend's behavioral characteristic and speech pattern in which they weren't as stoic as the first time I had known them.