Blame It All on Me. Part 1

Chapter 17. The Envelope

Miyogi, one of Hiruzen's assistants, was having a bad day: at first, she overslept, then she spilled tea, at least not directly on Hiruzen, and to top it all off, it turned out that her grandfather was hospitalized with a suspected stroke. He was found, helpless, at the doors of their house by the neighbours, fortunately, not too late.

The working day was in full swing, and the girl was dashing around the room with tears in her eyes, trying to finish everything at once to rush off to the hospital, although Hiruzen, who appeared occasionally, had already shouted twice for her to finally go. She wasn't of much use in this state, but the overwhelming sense of responsibility wouldn't let her just leave.

Arina, who had been working for Hiruzen for almost two months by that time and had managed to get quite comfortable, tried helping her as best as she could, and ended up finally snatching a stack of letters from her hands that she had to prepare for delivery. The girl froze for a moment and fluttered her eyelashes in confusion, but Arina patted her on the shoulder and said: "Go to grandpa already. Everything is going to be fine." Miyogi nodded, thanked Arina tearfully, turned around and finally sped away.

Arina shook her head sympathetically, watching her leave, and then went to her workplace, absently sorting through the envelopes. Suddenly, a familiar word caught her eye.

☙ ❦ ❧

"Hiruzen-sama!"

Arina literally stumbled into the Hokage's office. He looked at her over the papers, raising an eyebrow with slight displeasure, not particularly encouraging a raised tone and fuss.

The girl, standing at the doorway, showed him the envelope:

"How long were you going to hide this from me?"

Hiruzen squinted short-sightedly.

"What exactly?"

Arina marched to his desk and put the envelope in front of him.

"This is an invoice from my hotel. Which you ordered to be redirected to Kakashi. What for?" She was surprised at her own courage, because even despite the very favourable attitude towards her, she was still talking to the Hokage himself.

"Correction. It's a letter from your hotel that I redirected to Kakashi." Hiruzen clasped his fingers in front of him.

"Oh, Hiruzen-sama, don't take me for a complete fool... It says 'Invoice' right here," she pointed to the inscription in the upper left corner. "And what business could he possibly have with my hotel anyways?.."

"So, it is an invoice, so what?"

"Then why was it first delivered to you? Shall I open it?" Arina threatened.

Realizing that it was pointless to deny further, Hiruzen sighed. Arina stood with her fists clenched, her lips trembling slightly.

"When we were discussing your further prospects... he insisted that he would cover your expenses himself, and asked me... to mediate, so to speak," Hiruzen finally admitted and sighed again. Added hastily: "However, I hired you and I'm paying your salary, don't even think about it!"

"Well, as of today I will be paying for my hotel myself," Arina muttered.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to afford it..." Hiruzen shook his head in embarrassment, and the girl flushed – she did not quite expect that. "I'll do it myself..."

"I... I'll pay you back... somehow," Arina whispered in a sinking voice and turned away.

Hiruzen sighed once again and stood up. He walked around his desk and gave the girl a fatherly hug. She almost immediately turned around and tuck her face into his shoulder, no longer holding back her tears.