Ninja Gamer

Chapter 23: Battle in Wave

"So, your idea of helping me relax is more paperwork?" I asked with a raised eyebrow to Sarutobi-sama, even as I sorted through the various mission request paperwork the elderly Hokage asked me to organize. "I'm thinking you don't know me as well as either of us think."

Sarutobi-sama chuckled in response, waving me off. "I never said it would be relaxing now did I?" he said with a grin. "As I recall, I said it would be a change of pace for you. And you must admit, these are not the same kind of requests and forms you have to deal with as the Clan Head of the Uchiha, correct?"

This earned him a glare from me. "True...they're even duller, more repetitive and more ridiculous than some of the things my clansmen come away with sometimes! I mean, this request from the Civilian Council for guards...who in their right mind would approve it?! They don't need guards, as they're not in command of vital military units! They run the merchants and a few of the public works projects that aren't considered vital."

"And they do know that we only provide them guards when they leave the village, and not a retinue," Sarutobi nodded in agreement with a sigh. "They have been getting rather... obstinate lately..."

I snorted in response. "Have they ever not been?"

The Civilian portion of the Council, or just the Civilian Council, did actually exist, which would have delighted a lot of Fanfiction writers back in my original world. What would have disappointed them was how little influence the Council actually had. As I had pointed out, they were strictly limited in what authority they had, and they had no say in what Shinobi did, period. What really was irritating was that they greedily hoarded what little power they had and dug their heels in at the slightest signs of that power being usurped or reduced.

It gave Sarutobi-sama headaches on a frequent basis.

I knew why Sarutobi-sama was making me help out with his paperwork; I had become increasingly edgy since Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun had left on their mission to Nami. I was filled with unease about what might happen and who may have replaced the Demon Brothers and Zabuza in this timeline, and it made me seem as if I was having an exceptionally bad time of the month.

"They weren't always like this," Sarutobi-sama in formed with a small sigh. "Unfortunately, while he was great when dealing with shinobi, Tobirama-sensei was rather at a loss when it came to civilians."

I suppressed a scoff at that. Tobirama-sama was a genius with Water Jutsu, Jutsu creation and fighting in general, but his fear of Madara had transferred to the Uchiha Clan when Madara had 'died' at the Valley of the End, resulting in the mistrust of the Uchiha Clan by most of Konoha before my brother and I had turned things around on the Day of the Kyuubi, thanks to making us the Military Police. That he was equally inept in managing civilians was of little surprise to me.

I raised an eyebrow as I looked over the next request on the pile before me. "Really? A mission request for a kunoichi to be an 'escort' to a noble party being hosted here in Konoha?" I questioned, raising the page to Sarutobi-sama to see. "Do they really ask this kind of stuff."

"In recent years, yes." Sarutobi-sama rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Despite Konoha having raised several kunoichi of excellence, such as Tsunade, Kushina-chan and yourself, some morons persist in seeing kunoichi as little better than escorts and prostitutes. I sometimes am tempted to have Medical crack open their heads to see if they actually have any brains in there or if they're just hollow."

"I'd assign Anko to the mission to teach them a lesson." I muttered as I stamped 'denied' onto the form. "And I'll volunteer to do the cracking if you do decide to look."