Ch. 3 - Missions!

Note: Just a note, some of you believe the Naruto verse I'm going with is like canon, but it's just an Alternate Universe of it with slight tweaks.

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Cough, cough!

Hiruzen, upon hearing Naruto's words, coughed as he held his pipe with his right hand while his left hand hit his chest, trying to get rid of the smoke inside. For the first time in years, Hiruzen Sarutobi saw his life flash before his eyes. The coughing fit left him with small tears threatening to fall and his eyes becoming bloodshot.

"Damn old man. This is why you shouldn't smoke, you'll die from lung disease in a few years if you keep this up." Naruto cursed, pinching his nose to avoid inhaling any smoke. One thing he didn't like in his previous life or this one was people who smoked.

Isn't it your fault?!

Hiruzen felt like hitting him on the back of the head for saying such things, but instead, he took deep breaths and calmed himself, addressing the elephant in the room.

"So, you need thirty thousand ryo?" he asked, about to reject the request. It wasn't that he couldn't give it, but if he did, the civilian council would be at his throat for giving the 'demon' such a large amount of money. Even giving Naruto his monthly allowance of ten thousand ryo often led to demands that he stop. Every council meeting ended with him refusing their requests, gaining a massive headache, and a few clan heads sticking up for Naruto, telling the civilian council to stay in their place if things got too heated.

"I need the money for groceries and training materials. Since I'm becoming a shinobi, I should finally start fixing a few things that I've been putting off until now," Naruto said, his face turning serious as he walked over and sat on the chair adjacent to the Hokage's.

Wait... am I seeing things?

Hiruzen rubbed his eyes, pinched himself, subtly flared his chakra, and then furrowed his brows at Naruto.

"You've never been this smart, Naruto," he said simply, all emotion draining from his face in under a second as he stared at Naruto, suspecting that someone might have taken over him.

"Right, I never really got to show you my true personality. Well, it wasn't like I could either way," Naruto said self-deprecatingly, leaning back in his chair and looking at the ceiling with a sad smile.

Hiruzen, upon hearing this, grew curious and signaled his ANBU to stay on alert. For all he knew, this could very well be the Kyūbi somehow.

"Go on," he replied coldly.

Naruto switched his gaze to him, noting his expression, and chuckled—a chuckle that seemed filled with bittersweet feelings.

"It doesn't take a genius to know I've been acting all this time. Obnoxious, loud, stupid, lonely—though that last part may not exactly have been an act," he paused, weighing his words before simply sighing and saying what popped into his mind.

"It was to make everyone believe that I wasn't a demon, that I wasn't the Kyūbi—which I'm not, by the way. If I had been myself, if I had acted mature and smart, they would've accused me of being the Kyūbi before killing me. It's that simple, old man," he said, flashing a sad smile at the Hokage, trying his best to appear as if he were about to cry.

The Hokage stayed silent for a while, contemplating his words as his expression slowly changed. He was reminded of Minato and Kushina.

"Haaa." He grabbed his pipe, taking a small whiff of it to help calm his mind for the decision he had to make.

"So, how long have you been keeping this up?" he finally asked after a few seconds of terse silence, gazing at the small figure of Naruto, who seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible.

"I don't know. Years? I only remember being beaten up before my survival instincts kicked in, and I made myself seem like the smallest threat ever," Naruto muttered, his voice tired.

So it's been that long, huh?

Hiruzen quietly contemplated before asking another question that had been bugging him.

"So why reveal yourself now? What changed?"

"Now it isn't that simple. With me becoming a shinobi, I've basically fallen under your jurisdiction as a Konoha ninja. This means that the civilian council won't have much of a say over me or my actions anymore, which guarantees some of my safety," Naruto replied, as if this was something he had thought of years ago, his answer fluid and natural.

I see. He is right. With him under my jurisdiction, I can see why he wouldn't have to fear the civilian council all that much. Civilians deal with their own matters, while shinobi are a different matter altogether.

Even then, he shook his head and sighed deeply, his expression somber.

"I understand, Naruto, but I can't just lend you thirty thousand ryo. It isn't that easy to just cough up money, you know," he said.

This point made sense, as one needed to know that most of the money-related matters were handled by the civilian council and clans dealing with businesses like clothing, food, therapy, etc.

Of course, to use the village funds would require the acceptance of the Hokage. But he still couldn't give Naruto money, as that could be used against him by the civilian council to say that he was using village funds to give money to an orphan kid, and then people would start demanding money as well.

(Bs reason just go with it)

"Then, what if I take on D-rank missions? I am a shinobi; all I need is to take a few D-ranks and I'd be able to get the money, if not more," Naruto pondered aloud after a few seconds, his fingers scratching his chin.

Hiruzen paused and thought it over.

This could work.

He thought. It wasn't like Naruto would be taking missions that consisted of escorting people from one place to another or bandit executions, for that matter.

The only problem would be the fact that he hadn't passed the real genin test that would come from his genin sensei, which meant that he would have to keep this on the low as much as he could until he finally became a genin and then he could put those missions on his record.

"Alright. But first, you'll need to take your photo and officially register as a ninja before you start doing your missions," Hiruzen said, exhaling a plume of smoke and chuckling.

...

"Alright, I have a few missions you can do now. One of them consists of babysitting the child of a widowed woman while she works. The pay is 5,000 ryo," Hiruzen said, looking over the scrolls for D-rank missions that came flooding in every day from all around the village.

"No problem, I can take it. I'll send two clones over after they've henged into random shinobi," Naruto interrupted Hiruzen, as he made a Tiger sign and created two clones with ease.

My chakra control really has gotten good.

He mused.

The clones proceeded to henge into twelve-year-old girls, both genin, with the Konoha head protectors on their heads. They went over to the shocked Hokage, took the scroll, and then left.

"Why did you send clones? Wouldn't your real body be better since if they get hit and pop it would ruin your mission?" Hiruzen asked the boy, who only chuckled in response.

"That's why I sent two instead of one. If one of them pops, I'll be able to send another one since I'll receive that clone's memories." On that note, Naruto then grabbed his chin and made an observation.

"Reminds me, why haven't you used shadow clones to do some of the paperwork here? Since they end up sending their memories back when they pop, you should be using them." After he finished saying that, Hiruzen's face instantly turned red as he tried to hide it with a small cough.

Cough!

"Ahem, let's move on," he replied, though he promised himself to add some extra cash to Naruto's missions from now on, which would come from his own pockets.

Naruto continued to take mission after mission after that, mostly consisting of babysitting, painting, or cleaning up places throughout the village.

Overall, from his estimates, he believed he would end up getting a little over fifty-five thousand ryo after today. In total, he had taken on eleven D-rank missions, each worth the lowest amount possible, 5,000 ryo.

"Now that I'm done with business, I'll be heading to a random training ground to continue my training. My clones will come back to get the money from the missions and will come back to me, so just tell them to head home and leave the money there," he said as he lazily stood up and stretched his limbs, yawning.

Hiruzen chuckled and nodded. It took a lot of guts for a ninja to be this casual with their Hokage.

From the small amount of time Naruto had been with the Hokage, he had gathered a small amount of information from his reactions and body language. Hiruzen would not be a threat.

It seems those stupid fanfics from my previous life simply went to highlight their thoughts on Hiruzen. In truth, he is just a tired old man who is trying his best to keep the peace of the village, and that often leads to him being used by others—cough, cough, Danzo—and ends up in even more trouble.

Naruto used his chakra to stick to the surface of a building, then ran up it and jumped from roof to roof with chakra on his legs to make them stronger.

In just a few minutes of running, he finally made it to the training ground and created twenty more clones.

"Alright, half of you split and master tree climbing. The rest will practice shadow boxing. Make sure to get it deeply ingrained into you so I get the muscle memory." He finished giving orders as half of his clones split and started training chakra control, while the rest started punching the air and using their footwork.

In the meantime, I can just focus on body conditioning. Let's start over from the beginning: ten-kilometer run, a hundred push-ups, a hundred squats, a hundred sit-ups, and finally end it with meditation along with dispelling the clones at the library.

And so, he got to work.