14 Nindō 0014: Exploiting Exploits

As Naruto was spending the day with Himawari, taking her all around Konoha, one of his clones was in the Hokage's office, dealing with mission assignments for the genin teams. As he was arranging the missions for each team according to their skill sets, he heard a knock on his door.

"Good morning, Seventh-sama," Konohamaru entered the office after Naruto allowed him to enter, "Do you have Team Seven's missions for the day?"

"Yes," Naruto nodded and handed Konohamaru a stack of papers, "here you go."

"Anything noteworthy that I need to keep an eye out for?" Konohamaru asked, taking the papers and quickly flipping through them.

"Not particularly. Mostly D-rank missions and a C-rank one," Naruto said. "Team Seven has good coordination with each other and once they are promoted to chunin, I can officially start sending the four of you on more specialized missions."

"Got it," He nodded, turning to leave, "I'll be out of your hair."

After Konohamaru left, another knock was heard on the door.

"Morning, Hokage-sama," It was Moegi, Team Ten's jōnin sensei. "How are you doing?"

"Everything's good, Moegi. Here are your team's missions for today," Naruto said, handing her a stack of papers. "I saw in your last report that Inojin's not doing his best in the missions, so I added in some missions where his expertise would especially come in handy. Give him some positive affirmation, okay? Help his confidence."

"I understand Hokage-sama," Moegi said, "anything else?"

"No, dismissed, and send in the next jōnin sensei," He said. Moegi left as he continued thoughtfully arranging some of the contracts before another knock sounded on his door as he allowed the newcomer into his office.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama," Sai closed the door behind him and stood in front of Naruto's desk.

"Morning, Sai," Naruto frowned, "What about Team 15's leader?"

"I couldn't find Miss Hanabi in the waiting area, so I entered before," He answered as Naruto shook his head.

"It's fine," He said. "How's the job of temporary jōnin sensei suiting you?" He asked, still arranging some of the documents.

"The three of them are a handful, but they listen to orders well and have good coordination," Sai said. "It took me some time to get used to dealing with three genin while also fulfilling my Anbu commander duties."

"I still don't understand why you asked for this assignment in the first place," Naruto shook his head. "One of the other jōnin could've easily taken it up."

"I don't mind, Hokage-sama," Sai smiled his usual, slightly creepy smile. "It gets me out of the house. Besides, Ino has a lot going on lately … Never mind. I shouldn't make the others wait."

"Here you go," Naruto nodded before handing Sai the papers, "Talk to me if you need to. And good luck."

A few more team leaders followed Sai and got their mission assignments from Naruto, but there was still no sign of Hanabi. Just as he put the stack of Team 15's missions in the drawer to give to his clone who was managing the extra D-rank missions, his door burst open as a woman with long hair entered his room.

"You're an hour late, Hanabi," Naruto said, focusing on a paper in front of him.

"I'm sorry," She stuck her tongue out and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "Can you give me my missions now, brother-in-law~?" His sister-in-law was just as informal in her address as his son when no one was watching.

Unlike Boruto, however, he couldn't really reprimand Hanabi for acting that way. He merely sighed and looked up, "I already gave away your team's missions for the day. Consider today a holiday." As his eyes met her white pupilless ones, he easily noticed even the tiniest similarities that she had with her sister.

"What?" Hanabi widened her eyes, "That can't be, I was planning to buy a new dress for myself with the money that we got from this week's missions. If I lose a day's pay then I won't be able to go shopping on the weekend, delaying my dress by a whole week."

"Hanabi," Naruto spoke with a falter, all sorts of thoughts were running through his head as he saw the similarities between Hanabi and his wife, all of them going in a direction that he was sure his wife would not be happy about. "Dismissed," He decided to get rid of her for now and clear his mind.

'I have a feeling that the original's mental faculties are much better than us shadow clones that he creates. He can separate huge chunks of his memories from us and even give us weaker mentalities … to think I'm faltering when looking at Hanabi. What could he be doing that he's hiding from us? I'm getting curious …'

"Brother-in-law, no," Hanabi walked around Naruto's desk and looked at him with widened eyes, forcing him to look up at her from his seat. "I have to attend a party next week after the chunin exams and really need to buy that new dress," She said, moving close to him before crouching and hugging his arm like a little kid pleading for a new toy, "Can't you give our team some of the other missions? I really need it."

"Hanabi …" The name escaped Naruto's gritted teeth as he felt her rubbing herself on his arm. She was close enough that he could feel her breath on his cheek and ear, "Step back or else I will tell Hinata that her sister is trying to hit on me."

"Eeh?!" She exclaimed, quickly stepping back, "I'm just pleading for you to give me ninja missions. What's going on in your head?"

"Don't turn it around on me. It was your actions that were wrong," Naruto gave her a sharp gaze before pulling out the stack of Team 15's missions from his drawer, "Anyway, here are your missions," He grabbed a few more sheets from the mission pile and added them to the stack."I've added some extras in here with more pay, but they are slightly riskier. Take care."

Hanabi's eyes literally sparkled as she saw the stack of contracts in Naruto's hand, only intensifying further when she heard the words that he had just spoken to her. "You're the best, brother-in-law," She quickly snatched the stack of contracts as if they were actual money, having completely forgotten about the so-called spat that she was having with Naruto mere moments ago, "I'll get going and take care of these contracts along with my team today itself."

"Hold up," Naruto said, making Hanabi turn around, "Let me know if you need more money. I don't know what kind of dress you want to buy that you can't with your allowance as the heiress of the Hyūga clan but I'll help you out if you need me to."

"Awesome," She said, "In turn, you can let me know if you ever need to make up with Onee-chan. I'll help you out as well." Leaving those words, she disappeared from his office, prompting a chuckle from Naruto.

He pressed a button on his intercom, "Shikamaru, can you schedule a meeting in the next thirty minutes? In my office, you, me, Shino, and the other judges of the chunin exams. We should discuss what they've planned for the different rounds."

"Now?" Shikamaru's tired voice came from the intercom, "Fine … What a drag," He spoke under his breath, but the voice still made it through the phone, making Naruto laugh a little.

…

Naruto spent the rest of the day doing his Hokage duties and by the time it was a few hours past noon, the team leaders started showing up to give him their mission reports for the day. Eventually, that was also taken care of, leaving Naruto's clone in this office with his huge stacks of papers that he needed to get through.

That was when he heard a knock on his door, "Finally," He mumbled under his breath before allowing the person to enter. As he'd expected, it was his to-be disciple, Sarada.

"Greetings, Seventh-sama," She entered his office, closing the door behind herself. "Did you need something from me?"

"Yes, you're finally here," Naruto said. "Here you go, help me go through these papers, if we work together, we'll get through the bundles in no time. Pull that chair so that you can sit beside me."

The girl blinked as Naruto pushed a huge pile of papers in her direction. "O-okay," She stuttered before pulling the seat and placing it beside Naruto's desk chair. Recalling the stuff he'd told her about the previous day, she quickly got into the rhythm of going through the contents of each sheet and telling him about it, at which point he would either agree to sign it or reject it.

"Is it really okay for me to be helping you with these contracts before even becoming your disciple, Hokage-sama?" Sarada couldn't help but ask him as she realized that she was seeing all sorts of information about the civilians, some of whom, she was familiar with.

"It's fine," Naruto said, "These are all civilian matters and don't have too much of a say in the overall safety of the village. See that smaller pile," Naruto pointed, "those are papers that were forwarded to me by the shinobi council and the Anbu. Also, the mission reports given to me by the jōnin sensei of each team."

"That's it?" She asked.

"Of course," Naruto nodded, "that's how things are supposed to be. I should only be required to address matters that are important enough for me to address. Both my time and my attention are limited and the shinobi advisors understand that. As for these civilian matters …" He trailed off, "I'll explain to you when you become a chunin. At that time, I'll also explain the entire village's political structure to you. If I tell you about it right now, you are going to groan and pout at me."

"I-I won't, I promise, Seventh-sama," Sarada looked at Naruto with imploring eyes as if wanting to scream out. 'I'm a patient and understanding student and won't fall asleep in the middle of your politics lesson.'

Naruto laughed, "I know that you'll be my obedient disciple, Sarada. But let things come as they should. Don't try to rush," He rested his hand on her head, lightly ruffling her hair as he met his eyes and recalled something. "Hm …" He narrowed his eyes at the girl, making her gulp.

"What is it, Seventh-sama?" She asked, unable to help but recall the previous day when she looked into Naruto's eyes deeply for a long while. 'Am I imagining it, or is the blue of his eyes getting deeper …'

"Try to use the Sharingan to read these documents," Naruto said. "It's going to be immensely faster."

"I can try, Seventh-sama," Sarada said, "But I can only use it for a little over two minutes before I start suffering from chakra depletion. I can bring it to three minutes if I really push myself."

"Chakra, my dear disciple-to-be —" Naruto said, making Sarada blush, "— is something that you can never be low on while you're with me. Show me your Sharingan."

Sarada couldn't help but gulp at Naruto's tone, but nonetheless activated her dōjutsu, turning her pupils crimson with a single black Tomoe in each around the secondary black pupil in the center. Naruto hummed and sent his chakra into Sarada's body through his hand that was on her head, making the girl suppress a squeal as she felt the familiar warm feeling assaulting her. Moments later, her eyes were stirring as the faint ring that held her tomoe formed a whirlpool that led to the secondary pupil in the center. Then, her tomoe moved along the path created by the whirlpool, settling itself right beside her secondary pupil according to the faint whirlpool.

'Will this allow her to get the nine Tomoe of the Rinne Sharingan without evolving that dōjutsu naturally?'

Naruto's clone could only make speculations about the mutation he'd induced. Only the real body had the actual information behind the significance of this mutation. The clone didn't even know how the mutation process worked, merely being instructed to use his chakra to induce certain effects in Sarada's body that led to the mutation of her Sharingan.

***

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