Painless (A Naruto Fanfiction) [Completed]

Chapter Fourteen: The S-Class Criminal, Yukio

“If you’re finished with that message, go ahead ahead and take the important papers up to the Hokage’s office. You’re free to go after that.”

Hikari simply nodded, reaching up a hand to stifle a yawn. Her supervisor, an older man sporting salt-and-pepper hair, chuckled, his own hand stroking Sake’s back. The old bird ruffled her feathers, never moving from her wooden perch that was firmly attached to the front of Hikari’s work desk.

“Make sure to get some rest when you get home, I can’t believe you worked two straight shifts and are still functioning,” the man continued, watching as a wry smile flickered across her face.

“That’s debatable. I tried to decode the last message three times before I realized that it wasn’t coded- just bad handwriting.”

He grimaced, dropping his hand from Sake’s back.

“If you need, I can take the messages myself-”

“No,” Hikari interrupted as she rolled the scroll and reached for a string to tie it shut. “I appreciate the offer, but there’s something I want to ask him about.”

This time the man looked panicked, something she ignored as she began sorting the important messages from the rest of the piles of reports and reference materials.

“You don’t want reassigned, do you? I know it’s boring and not the work most young people do, but I’d tear out my hair if I had to spend the time to train someone new! The idiots they send me don’t know a numeric-”

“I’m not quitting, Renji,” Hikari reassured him, tucking the papers to her chest as another yawn threatened to break away from her. “Boring or not, you know my opinion on the matter.”

Reassured, her supervisor nodded, grabbing her back from the floor for her as Sake stretched her wings, in no hurry to make the effort to switch to her typical position- Hikari’s shoulder. It wouldn’t be long, Hikari mused, before the bird would probably opt for not coming to work with her at all. She was without the companion more often than she was with her anymore. The bird was only six years younger than she was, putting it in the upper end of it’s life-span. She’d opted out of training another when her parents had offered her a pick from the younger generation- she spent all her time working with messages, reports, and other documents in the Hokage’s mansion, there was no need for a bird trained for mission work.

Besides, she sometimes filled in for those who took the messages from the birds when they arrived, which meant she got to interact with the animals often enough.

“I do,” Renji agreed. “You’ve told me several times. ‘I have an idiot who’d probably die of loneliness if I was gone for too long, even if they’d never say it. Paper work is fine.’ I haven’t forgotten, I’ve got the mind of dozens of years in this work, you know.”

She shook her head, amusement appearing as she accepted her bag and tucked it over a shoulder, shifting the papers in her arms so that she wouldn’t drop any. Then, ignoring Sake’s annoyance, she put out the same arm so that the bird could transfer from the perch to her. An irritable flutter of feathers later, and Sake’s talons were biting into the skin of her arm.

“And yet, you’re still worried I’ll leave.”

“Of course! I’d die under the mountains of work!”

“I’m leaving,” Hikari sighed, heading for the door after she was certain she had everything.

“Forever?!”

“I’ll be back tomorrow, baka.”

“Oh. Get some rest, Hikari-chan! I’ll see you tomorrow!”