H.Shuyo

25

Hiroto yawned as the coffee machine went to work. He crushed his second energy drink and threw into the trashcan behind him without looking. Ferret walked in between and around his owners feet until he got bored and wandered off. Hiroto swiped the second cup and walked out after setting Sakii's order of three cups.
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"Hiroto-sama?!" Hiroto only turned his head around and saw it was Iruka running after him. Hiroto stopped to let the man catch up. "What seems to be the problem Iruka-sensei?" Hiroto sweat-dropped eyeing the man warily as he caught his breath. "How long has Sasuke been missing now?" The busy assistant quirked a questioning brow. "Eleven months and," Hiroto glanced at the ceiling in thought."twenty-three days I believe." Iruka squawked out in disbelief. "So he should be back now right?!" He cried. Hiroto huffed thinking carefully about his response before deciding there wasn't an easy way to put it. "Once we got word, Shikamaru was allowed to gather up a team and go. They tried and they failed." The mischievous twinkle in Hiroto's eye and the knowing smile stopped the sensei's next remark. "Is Sasuke okay?" Hiroto laughed at the man's expression before he schooled his own into a deadly serious one. "Nothing, but you should worry more about fact that Sasuke sent a Chidori through his teammates chest than the details of his whereabouts Umino." With that Hiroto turned around and walked away from the spluttering ninja.
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Kakashi sighed massaging the sixth cramp out of his hand. "I didn't know being Hokage meant this much much paper work. What the hell is Naruto thinking?" The scarecrow complained turning his attention to Shikamaru, who was shadowing his assistant Hiroto. "I don't think Naruto's thought of what the job entails exactly Kakashi. Well not yet at least." Hiroto piped up not looking up from the scroll he was reading. "Stop complaining and get to work Kakashi-sensei." Shikamaru piped up rolling his eyes at his Hokage before his eyes went back to reading the same scroll. "You guys are no fun." Kakashi huffed spinning in his chair.
"By the way Hiroto-sensei, have you figured out what's going on with that Tsunade lady?" Hiroto nodded moving his eyes from the scroll he was reading to another one with his own handwriting. "Jiraiya's working on it." Shikamaru quirked a brow. "What do u mean?" Kakashi piped into the conversion. "I thought he was teaching Naruto more about chakra control this week?" Both Kakashi and Shikamaru eyed each other with concern at the sound of Hiroto's writing utensil snapping in half.  "He never got back to you, did he?" Hiroto sighed deeply opening a drawer close bye "I really need to take some time off," Hiroto pulled a spare brush out of the and finished writing his sentence. "Scar's busy so I may have to send Fero instead." Hitoto didn't look at all fazed when Kakashi suddenly sprung out of his seat and ran out the door yelling "I'll go get him!" After a good minute or two Shikamaru spoke up. "Was it a good idea for us to let the Hokage leave? There's still a lot of work that we need to finish." Hiroto only shrugged at the genius. "He'll be done by sundown wether he knows it or not." Shikamaru nodded, watching silently as his second sensei walked over to the double doors and stuck his head out. He whistled a short tune and before Shikamaru could blink a ferret had ran right through him is owners legs and jumped onto his head. He flinched as the animal dug it's claws into his skull to stay steady. "Fero. Down." The ferret headed its masters orders immediately and landed on the desk. Shikamaru sighed in relief as Hiroto walked over and scratched behind the things ear with a smile. "Good boy. Fetch Jiraiya." Shikamaru jumped when the animal zoomed right past him and out the door. To fulfill his owners order no doubt. "Fero needs more experience to be on the same level as Scar, plus he'll be faster than Kakashi with how many times he'll be bombarded by people." Shikamaru mumbled a quick troublesome before handing his sensei a B-rank mission scroll he thought would be good for team eight to do. Hiroto scanned it's contents it and agreed with him. "Good thinking. I know they're chunin's now but make sure you check how much experience a team has before you send them on dangerous missions. Team eight needs to do a lot more C-ranks before they're ready for borderline assignation." Shikamaru's eyes widened in understanding remembering his first mission as a chunin. Shikamaru went to work finding for a more suitable team for the missions while Hiroto went back to writing letters to several very important people.
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Fero bobbed and weaved through the crowd keeping an eye out for the old man his master wanted him to fetch. Said animal let out a very human-like huff, annoyed at the amount of people in his way. Looking around he spotted up a bunch of boxes against the side of a building, and jumped onto each one until he was on the roof. Bright amber eyes scanned the crowds surrounding the line of buildings. When the little guy finally spotted him he spun around in a circle of happiness before leaping off the building and sliding down the yellow and red striped canopy above the local fruit stand, then  running across the ground to the blob of orange chasing the old man with the white mane. The critter ignored the shriek from the whiskered boy as he passed. His target quirked a brow at Fero who had started running in circles in front of him. "Hey old man! I'm talking to you!!" Jiraiya cursed himself for forgetting what he was doing. "Do you know who this mongrel belongs too?" Naruto grumbled about being ignored, but nodded his head anyways. "Yeah," Naruto paused for a second with his brows furrowed and the old man to looked at him a curiously. "Hiroto probably sent him to fetch you." Jiraiya watched as the ferret did another figure eight. "So to the tower we go." He ruffled Naruto's hair before he started walking, "Come on fishcake." Fero hopped to the line of buildings again deeming his mission accomplished and preceded to chase the pretty butterfly that fluttered ahead of him. Fero stopped suddenly, perking up at the special whistle that only his owner uses for him and his feathered friend. He looked around for a certain hawk with a scar on his left wing. Just as the last building came into the ferret's view, he saw the bird he was looking for getting ready for lift off. Fero happily jumped onto Scar's back as he flapped his wings. And to the tower they flew.
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Hiroto and Shikamaru's head snapped towards the open window when they heard the loud squawk of Hiroto's newest pet. Shikamaru immediately left to see what was taking Kakashi so long. With a smile he opened one of the Hokage's desk drawers and pulled out two treats. He threw the a couple pieces of jerkey to both the hawk and ferret. Both animals finished their treats in record time.
Kakashi chose that exact moment to burst through the door grumbling, with an amused Jiraiya and laughing Naruto in tow. Shikamaru walked in mumbling a small "Troublesome" shortly after. "Ah Jiraiya, welcome back. You've been doing absolutely nothing these past few weeks but bonding with Naruto I see," Before he could interrupt Hiroto continued in a more strict tone. "She does know that the third asked for her directly right?" Said old man sweat dropped. "No actually, and her answer remains the same." Hiroto sighed out in disappointment, rubbing a tired hand down his face. "Figures." Hiroto rolled his eyes slamming a new stack of unfinished paperwork on the desk scaring Kakashi out of his light nap. Kakashi grumbled about his assignments while Jiraiya said he would try again. "If your not back in two weeks time, i'm going to see to it that she comes myself."
Hiroto did not allow Naruto to join him this time.
After Naruto and his godfather left Shikamaru walked in with both eyebrows raised at the two animals playing near the unoccupied part of the room. The Nara snapped out of his musing at the annoying huff his mentor let out. "Konnichiwa Shikamaru-kun." Said Nara returned the greeting with a furrowed brow. "Are you alright Hiroto-sensei?" As if sensing his distress Fero and Scar moved from playing in the corner to around their favorite human. "Just stressed is all," He smiled weakly. "don't worry." Now it was Kakashi and Shikamaru's turn to huff. "What's on you're mind?" Kakashi asked signing the two thousand, four hundred and fifty third document of the evening. "A lot of stuff." Hiroto spoke softly walking towards the open windows. Knowing he would have to explain, he eyed the morphed blob of orange and white with a small secret smile. "Naruto and Sasuke for the most part." Kakashi perked up at the sound of his students names. "What about them?" He asked remembering the paperwork following the last Uchiha's departure. "Naruto is still upset he never got to save Sasuke," He emphasized the word save with finger quotes. "Sasuke doesn't want a savior though, he wants closure." Hiroto mumbled an apology for getting slightly off track. "Anyways, I don't know how well either of them are handling anything at the moment." He chuckled absent mindlessly. "They have a bond. A very strong one; and history has a habit of destroying these bonds, and I don't want that to happen." Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the man. "Speaking of Uchiha. Do u have any idea what he's been up too?" Shikamaru nodded wondering the same thing. "Kind of. We keep in touch." The Shuyo shrugged his shoulders. "Now before you ask. No, I'm not telling you anything. Just know that he's alright." Kakashi looked down in thought, shoulders drooped in shame. "It's been almost a year now, why am I just learning about this now." I rolled my eyes at Kakashi's betrayed expression. "because although he sort of trusts me, he barely trusts anyone else."
Shikamaru glanced between the two men's glare-off awkwardly. "Do you need me to do anything Hiroto-Sensei?" Said man nodded immediately, grabbing a stack of finished papers and handing them to the Nara. "Send these to Batsu and then see if anyone needs your help with anything." Shikamaru nodded and them left the room. "Okay Kakashi, back to work." Kakashi groaned, but did as he was told. Hiroto took upon himself to help his friend out with the workload, his signature just about as important as the Hokage's signature now adays.