Fox In The Leaf

Unexpected find

Hiruzen was having a very bad week, not only was he swamped with meetings with the council, who kept calling him for every little detail between land disputes and financial discussions to what they should have for dinner, the KI (killing intent) he was releasing, after that one was so strong that even the shinobi and the Anbu present were having a hard time staying conscious, the civilians didn't last long. He was also riddled with piles of the bane of all Kages: Paperwork, so much of it that he hasn't had time to even read his favorite little orange book.

He wanted to incinerate the piles just to be done with it but his sense of responsibility stayed his hand from performing a Katon jutsu, well that and an Anbu with long purple hair wearing a cat mask stopped him from finishing the handsigns. He did get some sense of satisfaction when he did burn one document and after the small lecture that he got from Neko about not destroy an important document he pulled out an exact copy of the document from the pile of finished and sign work. The mountains of paperwork turned out to be multiple copies of the same new pieces of work that was given to him and he couldn't destroy them because he wouldn't be 100 % sure if there wasn't anything really important in the pile so he had to do it the old fashioned way by going through each one, one at a time.

"I swear, these fools can't do anything other than annoy me with these useless requests. I'm getting too old for this and I need to find a replacement for this, maybe then I can finally get to read without any problems". Hiruzen mumbled to himself as he continued to stamp another document

He paused for only a moment when he heard a knock from the door, looking up he saw it was Inu. Inu was one of his high ranking Anbu easily recognized with his white gravity-defying hair (he is always described this way, pretty good in my opinion) "Ah Inu, what can I do for you?"

Kakashi walked until he was a few feet away "Yes Hokage-Sama, I have returned from my mission and I am ready to give my report on it."

when that was heard, the Sandaime was shocked because he didn't assign Inu to any mission "Kakashi" he said ignoring Anbu protocol "what was this mission and when did you leave for it?"

Kakashi looked at the Hokage confused but it was not visible with the dog mask he was wearing "I left for the mission eight days ago and it was a reconnaissance mission in the Haran bay to make sure that Kumogakure wasn't planning anything against Konoha, though it seemed that everything was quiet and no action was being taken to insinuate such a thing" Kakashi said giving his report to the now stunned Hokage.

This was a mission that the Hokage planned on having an infiltration team take but was holding off on it since he didn't want to stress the relations between the villages even more so since it was on thin ice as it was since the attempted kidnapping of the Hyuga Heiress Hinata Hyuga.

"Kakashi, that mission was put on hold and was not meant to be taken, are you sure that I gave you this mission?"

Kakashi nodded to the Hokage's question and pulled out the mission scroll that had his signature and stamp of approval.

The gears were turning in the old man's head, he had no recollection of assigning this mission to Kakashi since at this time he was supposed to be on guard duty for Naruto to keep him safe from any of the villagers that might harm the boy during the festival which happened to be his birthday as well, and that was three days ago. Jumping from his seat and tossing the scroll away, Hiruzen went to his Crystal Ball to see if he can find Naruto.

Kakashi startled by this and seeing the look of dread on the Hokage's face went to ask the Hokage "Sir, what's the matter?"

Hiruzen with a worried look tried to locate Naruto by tracking his chakra signature but was having difficulty finding it "I've been in meetings nonstop this whole week and you were sent out on a mission for that time as well and I don't find it just coincidence that this happened the very week that the festival was happening. You know how the villagers get during that day!" Hiruzen said while switching to the view of the ball to just see inside his apartment but still finding no trace of the boy.