Naruto Hiden Vol 4 Prologue

Prologue - Something besides the Wedding Invitation

Hatake Kakas.h.i.+, the Sixth Hokage, found that he had a problem.

“Well then, what am I to do…”

His quiet murmurs drifted into the empty room, eventually swallowed up by the silence.

As usual, Kakas.h.i.+ was alone in the Hokage’s office, and grappling with a mountain of paperwork.

The pile of doc.u.ments that sat front of Kakas.h.i.+ had actually reached such a height that they were blocking his line of sight from his seat. It wasn’t just the one pile either. Several piles of similar height were stacked around his left and right. As the village’s leader and Hokage, it was his duty to read through every single one of these doc.u.ments.

However, that wasn’t Kakas.h.i.+’s problem. Or rather, it wasn’t a very important problem.

The business of all the doc.u.ments on his desk could be easily settled by reading through them one at a time and stamping them as necessary. For jobs like that, once you started concentrating, you would be surprised at how quickly it got finished.

Wondering if you could complete the paperwork faster than new work would get piled up in front of you, wondering if you could be quicker, thinking you’d turn it into a match and see- if you concentrated on your work with those kinds of thoughts, then doing paperwork naturally became something that was sort of fun.

As he stamped each doc.u.ment, Kakas.h.i.+ would think to himself ‘if I don’t pick up the pace, people won’t be able to see my face past this mountain of paperwork’, and keep himself entertained with silly thoughts like that as he worked.

However, his current problem wasn’t something to be handled so lightly.

Kakas.h.i.+ let his eyes fall on the Mission Roster doc.u.ment spread out across his desk. His hands started moving.

Or rather, to be more accurate, only his fingertips were moving.

In the silence of his empty office, Kakas.h.i.+ started tapping his fingers against the surface of his desk, their tiny strikes letting out a ‘ton, ton’ sound. Somehow, the rhythm of his fidgeting helped him collect his scattered thoughts.

As the name implied, the Mission Roster was a doc.u.ment that held the details for all the upcoming missions of every single s.h.i.+n.o.bi in the village. What sort of mission they’d be on, how long those missions would take, every possible detail of their schedule was written down.

Kakas.h.i.+ was checking the Mission Roster far more carefully than usual, because of a certain circ.u.mstance.

His eyes slowly glanced towards the edge of his desk, where an envelope had been safely placed to make sure it didn’t get buried under the piles of paperwork.

Inside of that envelope was a written invitation to Naruto and Hinata’s wedding ceremony.

Kakas.h.i.+ had already filled out his RSVP form to say that he was going, and added in a congratulatory message. Normally, that was all one needed to do for weddings, but Kakas.h.i.+ had one more task at hand.

The task in question was to rearrange the Mission Roster to make sure that all of Naruto and Hinata’s invited guests –especially their close friends– could attend the wedding without any mission’s getting in the way of their schedule.

It was mostly a headache because Naruto and Hinata’s comrades were all s.h.i.+n.o.bi that were very active in the frontlines of the s.h.i.+n.o.bi world. They were all first rate ninja, and always being handed new missions whether day or night.

And, missions like that always included possible misfortunes.

Messed up weather conditions, bad roads, injuries…the reasons and circ.u.mstances would vary, but it was often the case that a s.h.i.+n.o.bi expected to return to the village in three days ended up coming back after a full week instead.

Kakas.h.i.+ had to rearrange the work schedules of such elite and busy s.h.i.+n.o.bi while keeping in mind the fact that their missions could be delayed as well. It was an incredibly difficult task to distribute this kunoichi’s missions, and that s.h.i.+n.o.bi’s missions…

Not to mention, he had to make sure he didn’t arrange it so some poor sap would stagger into the wedding ceremony fresh out of a mission either…

Kakas.h.i.+ felt a parental sort of want to arrange it so everyone would have at least one free day prior to the wedding- however, in the real world, it wasn’t so easy to put such a thought into practice.

Kakas.h.i.+’s eyes flickered back and forth along the roster. If he put that mission there this person could go, but then that that person couldn’t, if he put this mission there that wouldn’t work either…he was having an incredibly tough time.

And then on top of all that, there was the fact that in the world of adults and paperwork, there was such an annoying thing as ‘appearances’ to be considered.

If the leader of a group of elite s.h.i.+n.o.bi, s.h.i.+n.o.bi so dedicated that they wouldn’t take any extra time to rest even when wounded or in the midst of a fever, then gave those s.h.i.+n.o.bi consecutive days off, then it just wouldn’t be proper.

He had to think about how it reflected on his official stance as the Hokage.

He had to handle everything smoothly, manage the village’s affair without a hitch, and make sure that things went well.

And, he had to do both those things and somehow make it so that everyone could attend the wedding with smiles on their faces.

Kakas.h.i.+ closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, thinking deeply.

He didn’t really have any brilliant ideas.

Rearranging everyone’s schedules was guaranteed to be a problem.

It’d be nice if he could just call the day of Naruto and Hinata’s wedding a mission, and fix it like that…

It suddenly dawned on Kakas.h.i.+’s mind that he could.

If he did that, then all the other adjustments would be pretty easy…

– But no, that was, it was kiiinda…it would be an abuse of authority, right…

Kakas.h.i.+ crossed his arms, his face screwed up in thought.

In reality, the course of action that Kakas.h.i.+ had thought up of wasn’t him abusing his authority in any way. After all, he was just struggling to do everything in his power to adjust everyone’s schedules properly. However, Kakas.h.i.+ hadn’t faced such matters in his paperwork yet, so he wasn’t aware of that fact.

After all, Kakas.h.i.+ was a s.h.i.+n.o.bi who spent most of his life flouris.h.i.+ng on the frontlines of battle, not in politics.

“Well, it’ll be my last resort I guess.”

Kakas.h.i.+ let out a loud laugh, and then continued to stew in his thoughts.