The Dark Side of Akatsuki. Chapter 14

Interestingly enough, Sasuke was certain that none of the people he saw inside that room were important enough to make any decisions on the matter whatsoever.

"Choosing a new Hokage isn't going to be easy, that's for sure. There's no one who can hope to do everything he did." Sasuke paused, then added, "At least not without a couple decades of practice."

Naruto was uncharacteristically silent, but nodded his agreement.

"Kakashi told me that they're already hounding him about the position."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, sure. He's an amazing shinobi and all, but they don't know him like we do. He'd hate it."

"True enough."

Together, they moved on until they reached the office they were looking for. Despite the general recall, the village couldn't just stop taking on missions, or maintaining control over its territory entirely, and maybe, just maybe, there'd be something that could get them out of the village for a while.

They knocked on the door, then stepped inside before Sasuke introduced them.

"Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto reporting for assignment!"

His cry went unanswered, as the thirty or so chuunin and jounin in the room completely failed to pay attention to him. That's not to say that the room was quiet, oh no. The shouting began, or rather continued, immediately.

"The team that just came back from Mist, where's the data on their mission?!" bellowed one jounin.

"If it's a recent one then it's probably in Cabinet 1, Row A!" responded another.

"I just checked '1-A' and it wasn't in there!"

"There are two '1-A's now. Did you check both of them?"

"Yeah! Checked both!"

"Well if it's not in there then it was probably on the Hokage's desk when we did the recall!" shouted another.

"Fantastic! Where is that, then?" asked the first.

"Everything on the Hokage's desk got dumped into the 'Immediate Attention' box and shoved over there in the corner," a fourth pointed. "It's the one with 'IA' on the front."

"Wait, the 'I-A' box? Didn't Sakumo from Internal Affairs just wheel that one out of here an hour ago?" asked another.

"No, you're thinking of Hakusho from Interrogation! He grabbed the 'Intelligence Assets' box and brought it down for examination!"

"W-Wait, so does Interrogation have the 'Immediate Attention' box or the "Intelligence Assets' box?"

"It's the one that said 'I-A' on the front. Go down and ask them about it, will you?"

Sasuke looked like he was being physically wounded by this continuing conversation. Naruto, meanwhile, was twitching with barely restrained fury. He started to shout and grab attention, but was interrupted as the door behind them slammed open and a hugely muscled man walked into the room bellowing twice as loudly as they had.

"Got an incoming one! Weird ships seen on the eastern coast! Possibly some unaffiliated fighters or ninja causing trouble in the port towns! There's a request to go check it out!"

One of the jounin waved a hand dismissively, "Got it. Probably won't take priority for a while. Toss it in the 'Incoming Assignments' bin right there, okay?"

"Got it!" responded the huge man. Then he paused, "That's the one labeled 'I-A,' right?"

That was it. Naruto screamed. "Holy Shit! What is wrong with all of you?!"

There was a brief moment of silence, and Sasuke snapped out of his stupor in time to call out to the jounin that had accepted the receipt of the mission.

"No, wait, let us take care of that!"

The bureaucrat-nin gave them a confused look, before finally settling on exuding aggravated superiority. "Oh, it's you two. What do you want? "

Sasuke noted the man's face seemed vaguely familiar. The man was so generic he hardly warranted a second glance, but Sasuke had the feeling that he and Naruto may have once stink-bombed him or something. He smirked, feeling back on familiar ground. "We're here to help with the work-load. Let us take that mission."

The bureaucrat-nin frowned. "We're not just sending people out willy-nilly at a time like this. We're certainly not going to let you two go without supervision."

Sasuke sighed, rubbing at his neck. "That's a shame. I mean, a real shame. We've been stuck here for a while and we're starting to get… restless. We were interrupted in training, and it's hard to keep ourselves occupied without driving everyone else crazy."

Behind Sasuke, Naruto took the cue from his teammate and picked up a piece of paper off a messy pile that looked somewhat more important than the other nearby messy piles and began to industriously fold it into a paper airplane.

"Is- is that supposed to be a threat?" the man asked, uncertainly, "Hey, quit it!"

Naruto sent the airplane shooting through a nearby window, then began working on another one. Sasuke immediately went for the kill. "No, no, certainly not! It just seems a waste to leave us here without a job, but if you want us to stick around then I can figure something out. Maybe Naruto and I could help out with the paperwork or something?"

Naruto flicked another glider out of the open window before the bureaucrat-nin stomped over and slammed it shut. "No, no there will be none of that. I won't have you getting in the way. If you two want to make yourselves useful for a change and beat up a few drunk fishermen then be my guest."

Suppressing smirks, the two young shinobi of Team Seven were swiftly sent off to Dispatch for their mission details. They were ready to leave in record time.

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