Chapter 18: Chakra Beast Association

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other references mentioned in this fanfic.

In this chapter I will try to fix one of the world's biggest plot holes, so read on.

Chapter 18

Days passed in a blur for Kenji.

Ever since his release there always seemed to be something that needed his attention.

He was constantly being invited to dinner and tea parties by the Daimyo and his wife. Of course, he would be a fool to pass a free meal so he always accepted.

They had taken Kenji's advice and visited a doctor just to be sure, and as luck would have it, Madam Shijimi was now able to have children again. Every time Kenji visited them, they would always shower him with attention and tried to get to know him a little better. In exchange he helped them by providing them with the very best of his elixirs and pills. Even the Daimyo's declining health was fixed after only a few days, and he looked healthier even when compared to his prime.

It took some time, but eventually Kenji started to see them as more than just a source of income. He would even go so far to call them close associates.

However that didn't mean that Kenji would hold back when a deal was made. Thanks to all of the time spent with the Daimyo, he was able to make quite a few sales.

The Chastity rings were a huge selling point, and just like Madam Shijimi had said, the Daimyo was all too willing to support his cause. They were relatively cheap to make, since it only required a talisman's ability to be transferred to ring and 5 chakra points to upgrade, because of this he always made them whenever he had some left-over chakra points. He used scrap metal to make the rings, so the only real cost was the ink and paper for the talisman. With these being 400 a piece the Daimyo had bought his entire stock which totaled to over 4,000,000 ryo.

That wasn't all since the regulations concerning artifacts had not been decided yet, the Daimyo had chosen to get his fill before then.

He bought many artifacts from different grades for his personal treasury. The total was almost 140,000,000 ryo in pure gold. Kenji didn't stop grinning for at least two days. Not even 11 and he had already made his first multimillion under the desk deal.

However it was only a few days later that a meeting had been held to discuss matters concerning the village. Everyone important had been invited such as the Head for all 17 clans, the Civilian Council, the Hokage, his Advisors, and the Daimyo. Kenji had obviously been invited as well since he knew most about what they were going to talk about. He still refused to take the Senju seat though.

During this gathering the Hokage discussed the importance of these newly created items. Almost immediately the room had been divided. Some of the clans wanted to make them exclusive to shinobi, while others wanted to make them available to the general public too. Kenji was in favor of the latter since it meant more profit for him.

Thanks to Akira's father, he had the backing of the Civilian Council. Apparently the councilman had been truly grateful of Kenji after his son had passed the genin exam, or more accurately he was thankful for the upgraded equipment. The other member of the civilian council also saw this as a way to raise their own families' power. But the most defining reason was that Kenji was always seen in the company of the Royal Family, and they wanted to curry favor by siding with him.

All of the minor Clan Heads also saw this as an opportunity to restore their clans that were beginning to decline. As such they did what was only logical, they allied themselves to the new power in the village.

It was also during this time that Kenji finally met Danzo, since he represented the Shimura Clan. Danzo was one of the few that wanted to keep the artifacts as shinobi exclusive. No shock there. Throughout the entire meeting Kenji had his eyes trained on the man for any signs of foul play. The man must have sensed his gaze even with the bandages because he did nothing that was even remotely suspicious.

Not everything could be decided in just one day however so the meeting needed to be extended by a few days. In doing so, they did the one thing that they should have never done. Give Kenji enough time to plan.

With Madam Shijimi's guidance he was able to learn many political techniques to get his way, everything from backdoor deals to the ever-present bribe and blackmail. The noblewoman said that he was a natural.

In the end, with the Daimyo's support Kenji's side won, and it was decided that chakra artifacts would be allowed to the general public, although a strict code was implemented so that not just anyone could buy them. Only distinguished and trusted members of society (*Cough* Nobles *Cough*) would be allowed to buy them. In other words, Kenji had the final say in all things artifact related.

However it was during the final meeting that the Hokage drop the final bombshell. In other words he informed all of those gathered about the emergence of the chakra beasts in the world.

Suddenly Kenji felt very cheated as he remembered the terms of the contract. He had glared at the Hokage through his bandages during the remainder of the meeting.

This was considered a nation-level threat and was deemed a matter of upmost importance. Luckily, or rather unluckily for Kenji, the Hokage had already thought up of a plan. He proposed making a new division tasked with the capture and removal of these new threats.

The Chakra Beast Association was thus created. It would be comprised of the Inuzuka Clan, the Aburame Clan, the Hatake Clan, etc. Basically, anyone that had an animal partner was invited to this new group.

However it still needed a leader, and this was the part where Kenji's inexperience was truly shown as these clans debated over each other in the fiercest game of hot potato to date. This battle was not fought over who would be the leader, but over who wouldn't get saddled with that title. They metaphorically ran circles around Kenji. Even the hot tempered Tsume showed an impressive amount of political maneuvering that left others shocked. As such Kenji was given the title of Leader of the CBA (Chakra Beast Association).

Their reasoning was that since Kenji had the most contact with them he was the most qualified. Truth was that they didn't want to deal with all of the paperwork or any potential fall out because of this new unknown enemy so they were more than willing to throw the new kid under the bus. This organization wasn't just for chakra beasts near the village either, it was meant for the entire Land of Fire, meaning that Kenji would now have to deal with every little problem himself.

That was even before the Hokage went for the killing blow and they found out that he was the only one in the village that was capable of taming them so to speak. Of course, Kenji tried his best to fight back stating various reasons why he would be unqualified for the position but the Hokage countered every point skillfully, and he was quickly backed into a corner.

A new bill was passed almost ridiculously fast, this one dealing with Chakra Beast in general.

Kenji's hand almost had to be physically forced to write his name on that bill.

When the meeting had been official finished Kenji had complained to the Hokage, but all Hiruzen had done was show him the contract, that stated Kenji would help in all things concerning chakra beasts. The small boy had been played, and despite himself, Kenji felt his respect for the old man grow.

That had been more than a month ago, and Kenji was finally starting to adjust to his new lifestyle.

The Daimyo and all of the other Nobles had left once the meeting had ended. Peace had returned to the Leaf Village once more… or at least for the moment.

(Scene change)

~Poor unfortunate souls

In pain, in need

This one longing to be thinner

That one wants to get the girl

And do I help them?

Yes, Indeed

Those poor unfortunate-~

"-oh I'm done," Kenji said as he wiped the dirt off his brow.

In front of him were two large cloth bundles filled with weeds.

He was currently in his chubby persona minus the kung fu beard. It was just too hot so he had needed to take it off earlier.

An old woman came out of her herbal tea shop and inspected his work, "Done already eh? Well let's see if you managed to do any work with all that singing."

The large backyard had been cleaned and the garden had been well taken care of. It was such a good job that there were sparkles all over the place.

With an impressed face she signed the mission scroll that Kenji had presented to her, "Not bad, this is good work… for a beach ball."

Kenji just smiled, since he could sense her true emotions anyway.

With nothing else to do Kenji made his way to the mission hall to turn in the rank D-mission.

He opted to use the rooftops like any respectable shinobi. He did flips and cartwheels as he traveled as he particularly enjoyed the feeling of gliding through the air.

He jumped off a roof and curled into a ball to perform a flip.

"And he sticks the landing! The crowed goes wild," he announced landing in a gymnast pose.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

He saw a young 3-year-old looking at him from a small distance away, clapping enthusiastically.

Kenji gave them a thumbs up before walking toward the large building in front of him.

Walking into the mission hall with purpose he went up to the counter and presented his signed mission scroll to the attendant, "Here you go?"

The civilian manning the counter took the scroll with a grin, "Well, well, if it isn't Master Shu. Back so soon?"

Kenji went to stroke his beard before remembering that he forgotten to put it on. When he was in his fat appearance, he was Master Shu, loyal shinobi to the Leaf Village. When he was out of disguise, he was Kenji Yamamoto, emancipated civilian and shop owner. He wanted to keep his double life as separate as possible.

"Genta. Shouldn't you be on your break," the chubby boy said as he handed his ID to the man. It had a picture of his chubby form with a fox like grin, complete with fake beard.

"I'm heading out now," Genta said as he began to record the mission details on the primitive computer.

"I think I passed Nora on my way here, looked like she was heading for restaurant district. In fact a source of mine says that a new dish is supposed to come out today at the BBQ Hut," the small boy commented casually, as he slid two coupons on the counter.

Genta's finger stopped their typing as he turned to Kenji and gave him an impressed look, "MY MAN."

The man's fingers blurred into action as he finished the recording in seconds. Then he wrote a check and handed it to Kenji, "I'll be sure to set aside any good D-rank missions for you next month since you completed your quota already."

Kenji saluted the man as he walked towards a separate counter to have the check cashed.

Now the way that missions worked was different than what people expected. For instance, the prices for missions.

Ninja Mission Pay

D-rank: 5,000-50,000

C-rank: 30,000-100,000

B-rank: 150,000-200,000

A-rank: 150,000-1,000,000

S-rank: 1,000,000 minimum

Just looking at the price for missions made one think that shinobi were rolling in money right. Wrong!

This was the amount that the client paid, not what the shinobi got.

For instance, take the basic D rank mission, like the one that Kenji had just done.

The old woman had paid 5,000 Ryo for someone to clean up her garden.

The village took a 10% fee out of every mission so 5,000 turned into 4,500.

Then that was divided into however many people took the job, typically four in a squad. In the end each member earned 1,125 ryo.

That wasn't all though.

5% of that went to taxes, even shinobi weren't excepted from this.

10% went into health care. Injuries were a very real possibility after all and getting healed by Medic-nin was rather costly.

15% was also subtracted from every pay-check and placed into a retirement fund. Chances were that most shinobi were unable to continue after age 30 for whatever reason, so this was in place to support them after they finished taking missions. If they died on the job, then this money was given to their family as financial aid.

1,125- 30%= 787.5 ryo (78.75 Dollars)

787.5 for 3 hours of work. That wasn't even taking into consideration all of the equipment that shinobi had to buy to replace those they lose during the mission. Explosive tags and ninja wire weren't exactly cheap.

In the end things looked something like this.

R= Reward

((R- 10%)/4)-(15+10+5)%= Total

In the end however, there was still one important question. Why would people pay 5,000 ryo for D-rank missions that basically amounted to glorified chores.? The answer: Taxes.

D-rank missions counted the same as giving to a charity in other words it was tax deductible, so most businesses or wealthy merchants chose to hire genin to mow their lawn or babysit in order to reduce the amount of taxes they needed to pay every year.

Genin Team used them as teamwork exercise and skill building, while the clients got cheap labor and a reduction on their taxes. Everyone wins. The person who came up with this was you guessed it, Tobirama Senju.

On a separate note, Clans were a little special. The health care and insurance money were instead paid to them since clans support their own. That also meant that clans that had more shinobi tended to be wealthier as a result.

"Here you go, 3,150 ryo is your total," the man behind the glass said as he deposited Kenji's money in a slot.

Since he had done the mission by himself he was able to make more money. As a member of the reserve corps, he was allowed to take up to 15 missions per month. He could do D-rank missions by himself or group up with other reserve shinobi and try for C-rank. The bare minimum that they needed to take a month was 10 missions.

Those that were assigned to a sensei could take as many missions as they wanted.

He smiled as he walked out of the tower.

Using the roof tops, he was able to make his way to his next destination.

It was a large three-story building that stood far away from the streets. Behind this building was a large open ground enclosed by an electrified fence and numerous seals.

He had taken off his disguise during his trip, and he was back into his handsome lean self. He had Kaguya's pink bandana tied around his eyes. He was wearing blue robes and puffy white pants, his shoulder length hair was let louse behind him. He was wearing an earring that looked like a tiny sword on one ear and the phoenix earing that Madam Shijimi had gifted him on the other. The Daimyo's badge was around his neck. In total honesty it was hard to tell his gender on appearance alone.

Pushing open the wooden doors he was met with what looked like a hospital waiting room, only it was completely empty sans a lone secretary who was behind a desk writing on a computer.

She glanced up when she heard the door open and spoke in professional manner, "Ah Mr. Yamamoto, you've finally arrived. The environmental reports from the Northern provinces arrived earlier today. I've taken the liberty of having them sent to your office."

Kenji dismissed her entirely as he made his way further inside. His office was at the top floor of the building and he need to take two flights of stairs since 'apparently' an elevator was out of their budget.

He was just about to open the door to his office when he felt a presence behind him making him stop.

He stood perfectly still for several seconds before his body sprung into action and he rushed into his office and tried to close the door behind him, however a foot jammed the door.

"Ow! Ouch! Kenji stop that! Ow, that really hurts," said the owner of the foot.

Kenji on the other hand ignored them as he put the entirety of his body into closing the door.

Finally the foot retreated and Kenji slammed the door shut, locking it just to be safe.

However he barely made it five steps before the doorknob was twisted and a smug Hiruzen stood there holding a key.

"Tch." Kenji clicked his tongue and walked behind the large oak desk. The room was filled with towers of boxes full of paper work and reports. This was all the information that had been gathered from all over the Land of Fire, which still needed to be reviewed.

"Now, now Kenji-kun. There's no need to be hostile, I just came to say hello," the Hokage said as he let himself in, pushing in a catering cart with a silver plate and lid.

"Sorry Hokage-sama, I didn't see you," Kenji said in sweet voice, pointing to his bandages.

"Haha, always the jokester Kenji-kun, I even went out of my way to bring you lunch," the old man said as he pushed the cart forward.

Kenji who already had a pen in his hand stopped momentarily as he gave the grinning Hokage a searching look, then he looked back down to the paper in his hand, "Take it away, I don't need it."

"Don't you at least want to know what it is before you reject it?"

"No."

Akame who heard lunch being mentioned made her presence known as she hopped out of his collar.

"See, even Akame-chan is curious," the Hokage continued.

Rolling his eyes Kenji gave in, "Fine, what is it I'm having today?"

Hiruzen smiled as he placed the tray on the desk and removed the lid to show a pile of paper work 12 inches high.

The pen in Kenji's hand snapped in half.

The Hokage fanned the air as he was smelling a delicious meal, "Ah, it's still warm. Fresh out of the printer. I thought you could use more fiber in your diet Kenji-kun. Hahahaha."

Kenji looked in the direction of the aged shinobi and before he broke into a sarcastic laugh, "Hahahaha- Eat a dick Hokage-sama," he finished with a pleasant smile.

"Hahaha. Just think of this as payback for bribing Naruto into pranking my office," the Third said as he took his pipe form his robe.

The small boy turned back to his paperwork, "I don't know what you are talking about Hokage-sama."

"You payed him with 10 tickets for Ichiraku's right. Well it only took 15 for him to sell you out," Hokage went on as he took a seat on one of the couches in the room.

"Tch. I knew I couldn't trust that whiskered brat to keep a secret," the young shinobi muttered under his breath.

A small cold war had started between the two ever since the day of the meeting, where Kenji was given this bothersome position. The Hokage claimed it would serve as training. Training for what, Kenji didn't know, but he didn't like the sound of it.

It usually involved small pranks here and there, with the occasional insult match.

So far it was Kenji: 9, Hokage: 15.

In truth this little prank war had allowed Hiruzen to grow closer to Kenji, even to the point where the small boys true self would slip out. They both knew that there were no negative feelings between them, and it was just Kenji's own way to deal with this sudden responsibility.

"Did you need something Hokage-sama, or did you just come to pick on me?"

The Hokage was casually seating on his seat enjoying the rare moment of rest from his own paper work. "Putting all jokes aside, there was a reason why I came. I'm hear to remind you that you have your first class today."

The sound of scribbling stopped as Kenji looked at the Third, "You mean the Alchemy Class? That was today?!"

"It looks like you really did forget. Anyways, the class starts at three, so be sure to go to the appointed location. Wouldn't want to make your eager students wait," he said as he stood up and walked toward the young boy before throwing him a scroll. "Here, I thought this might come in useful."

Kenji opened the scroll hesitantly. Written inside was the method to perform the Shadow clone jutsu.

Then the aged old man took out a sealing scroll and unsealed a whole pie and placed it on the desk in a space clear of paperwork, "I know you have it hard Kenji-kun, but I wouldn't have given you this job if I didn't think you could do it. You're talented, years ahead of all your peers in fact, but you must also need to learn discipline. There's a lot of good you can do Kenji, not just for the village but for the entire country, and I'm sure that you will rise up to the challenge just like all of your clansmen that came before you."

"…I'm not a Senju. I thought I made that clear enough," the small boy said in a calmer voice. He could feel the trust radiating from the old man making him feel slightly embarrassed.

"Of course, well then I better get back to my own work," the Third said as he walked out of the room.

Kenji sighed then looked at the dessert on his desk, "Wonder what type of pie it is?"

Getting the fork that was placed beside it, he poked the crust.

BAM!

He was thrown backwards on his chair as the pie exploded, coating the room in blueberry filling. All of his finished paperwork had been blasted away.

Whipping pie filling from his face, Kenji glared at the door with all of his hate.

"OLD MAAANNN!"

(Scene change)

"I told you to stop licking your ears," Kenji lightly scolded his friend as the small rabbit tried to lick the remainder of the pie filing off her fur.

Getting everything cleaned up had taken up the majority of his remaining time, and he only had a few minutes to get to his first ever alchemy lecture. He was just glad that Kaguya's bandana was stainproof.

They were just coming down the stairs when they heard rambunctious celebration coming from one end of the corridor.

Giving each other a look, the duo stuck their heads out, and saw the two medical doors swing open.

A large metal table was being pulled, a strange creature that looked like an armadillo combined with a pig was strapped on it with reinforced metal bindings.

"Haha. This little piggy turned out to be really troublesome," one of the people pulling the cart said to the others.

The triangle markings on his face indicated that he was an Inuzuka clan member just like the rest of them.

'Ah, another Inuzuka squad. Looks like they are back from a hunt,' Kenji thought.

"Yeah, Yeah, lets get this over with. Why didn't we just take a piece to prove we killed it instead of luging the whole body through the village," the youngest of the group, about 14, said with a yawn.

The others stopped and gave him a look as if he was stupid.

The only female of the group pinched her nose in frustration, "This idiot."

"Huh? What?"

The first guy shook his head, "Right, this is your first time, so you probably aren't that informed."

Taking the pose of a teacher he held a finger to explain, "As you know something called the Beast Awareness Bill passed right?"

The kid scratched his head trying to remember, "Yeah, a month ago the Hokage suddenly said something like that right. I remember everyone throwing a big fuss."

"Exactly no one knows exactly where these chakra beast, or spirit beasts as others call them, came from. There's a lot of theories about it, from them being mutated animals caused by the Kyuubi's chakra to evil spirits possessing animals. The biggest one right know says it has to do with 'that' day."

"That day? Ah! You mean Heaven's Judgment, the day when all of those thunder bolts light up the sky during the middle of the day."

'I'm sorry everyone, but that was my fault,' Kenji mentally apologized.

"Bingo, reports say that they started to appear right after that event. Only the higher ups know the truth, and their keeping it hush hush."

"But what does this have to do with us luging a 3-ton pig all the way here."

The girl released a growl, "He was getting to that, moron. The Hokage made this place, the Headquarters of the Chakra Beast Association. It's our job to find and exterminate these pests, then we register it with the Association. They can keep track of the chakra beast population to see if there are any serious threats. It's not just here either, it's the entire country, maybe even the world. They have a group of scientists here that study the creatures, and from our reports are able to make books that help others combat them. It might seem like an unimportant task at first but this was given to us especially by Tsume-sama, one of the top Officials to the CBA."

"Why is Tsume-sama only an Official? Shouldn't she be the leader instead?"

The last member of the group who had remained silent shook his head, "Idiot. Do you really think someone like Tsume-sama is suited to be behind a desk a day, being a simple paper pusher."

An arrow stabbed Kenji though the chest.

"As Chicka said, this isn't just around the village, but the entire nation. The head must be up to his ass in paperwork every day. Only a complete fool would take this job."

Another arrow stabbed Kenji.

Chicka spoke up next, "I remember her holding a clan meeting with all of the older clansmen and someone asked her why she didn't become leader. She said, 'Bwahahahah! Me? I'd sooner retire as a shinobi and take up crocheting. You know how much trouble that would be? Naw, I left it to some sucker, their hair will probably go white from stress in a year. Hahahah.'"

A barrage of imaginary arrows hit Kenji, and using the imaginary blood used his finger to write the name of the murder. 'Paperwork… Danzo too.'

"Yeah I guess you're right. That does sound like something she would say."

The first guy remembered their purpose, "Right, we need to register the kill to the association. Since they already have this chakra beast in their records, they'll return it to us and then we can go to Moon Artifacts and sell it. Do all of you guy have your membership cards."

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"…I don't have one."

"…This guy seriously. It's fine I guess, you can apply for membership over there. Remember to always carry it with you, otherwise you can't even enter the shop."

Kenji watched them turn a corner into another hallway.

"Akame?"

The small rabbit turned to give the depressed boy her full attention.

"I really hate this job."

She placed a paw on his shoulder, consoling him.

With a downward head Kenji began to exit the large building, and off to his first lecture as a teacher.

A/N: Done. It's a short chapter.

I hope I was able to clear a couple of questions. This is my take in fixing the shinobi system and such since the Manga and Anime didn't go into too much detail.

One of the things that shocked me was that there were 17 clans in the village. Shocker right.

I'm also guessing that getting healed by a medical nin cost more than visiting a regular doctor, so this was my way of explaining that. After all medics still need to eat.

I'll get into fixing other problems like these in future chapters so be patient.

What do you think of Kenji's new position? It's mostly paperwork though, and he will rarely leave the village except for an emergency. He is more of a figure head to be honest.

I'll be making more time skips in order to speed up the story and get to the beginning of the anime.

I'll be introducing more Xianxia elements to those that were curious.