Can Pokemon to Naruto? 6 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Anthony Maxwell

Can Pokmone to Naruto?

Chapter 6

-VB-

He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. 

It was … normal.

Normal for him to feel tired, though not exhausted. It was simply how he was in his old age. 

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, felt every single year of his life throughout his body for a very simple reason: he saw his and the previous generations’ mistakes blossoming into bigger problems.

They plagued him like a swarm of mosquitos. Never quite damaging enough to require a full-on reform that most would agree on, not quite harmless enough to ignore, and constantly on his heels.

So a random and weird report like the one in front of him was refreshing(?) in that he didn’t need to look at the slowly creeping rot that was both not worth the effort of rooting and also an eyesore.

“An unconfirmed Suna missing-nin in … Manna Forest of the Shimaraku Province? That is very far south, humid, and wholly unexpected place for a Suna-nin to be in,” he hummed out loud. “But maybe that is precisely what he wanted when he fled to there.”

“Are we sure if this is even a missing-nin, Hokage-sama?” the jounin in charge of missions involving the southern provinces of the Land of Fire asked. 

“We only have mentions of a doll, true,” he replied. “I think it warrants at least an investigation to see what they are up to. The noble in question is offering to pay, after all.”

And that’s what a lot of missions came down to: whether or not Konohagakure got paid for the troubles it had to deal with. Or if the mission involved any village- or nation-level security issue. 

In this case, a missing-nin operating somewhere Konohagakure traditionally had little to no presence in was … worrying. 

But that begged the question. Even if Shimaraku Province was far away from Konohagakure, did the missing-nin think he could get away with blatantly showing off his Sunagakure ninjutsu?

And perhaps that was what the jounin was asking. What if this wasn’t a Sunagakure missing-nin? Everyone understood that while secret techniques of each village and clan did exist, there were quite a few clans whose secret techniques were similar enough for accusations of theft to crop up once in a while not because theft actually occurred but because humans were similar enough to create similar techniques when faced with similar circumstances. 

A good example of this involved the ninken. While the Inuzuka weren’t litigation happy folks - they would rather punch someone in the face - and didn’t go out of their way to harass anyone with ninken, they were also extremely hostile to the point of infanticidal rampage on any clan they found were trying to steal their techniques.

How did he know this? 

During the Shodaime’s era, there used to be three ninken-focused clans across the Land of Fire. 

There was now only one.

And the Inuzuku’s rampage against their competitors was considered, to this day, “tame” compared to what other clans and villages have perpetrated. 

It was probably for that very reason that he couldn’t put this investigation off even though the matter was irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. 

After all, a single Suna missing-nin working as a farmer in the ass end of nowhere in an underdeveloped forest at the edge of Land of Fire was not a matter that he should even be considering, especially since there were entire garrisons between him and this supposed missing-nin who could have gone and done the investigation themselves! 

Ultimately, this was political.

How so?

If he ignored the issue, then it would become a problem in the eyes of Sunagakure, their ally. It was in the interest of Sunagakure that doll techniques remained solely theirs, and while it was acceptable to ignore someone whose techniques didn’t originate from their village because it was inferior, it was something totally different if their ally, Konohagakure, let it loose out into the wild because they didn’t do “due diligence.”

“... Who to send, though?” he hummed to himself. “This is some nameless missing-nin, if that.”

Sending a team of jounin would be overkill. 

A team of chunin might be safe but needlessly expensive for a cross-country investigation.

A team of genin and their jounin teacher? A waste of a time. 

A team of genin by themselves might not have the investigative mindset or experience needed to carry this mission through. 

Then he frowned. Well, if there was someone already in the area, then he could just temporarily redirect their efforts into this investigation. Alas, there was no one else. 

The least wasteless option was a team of genin and a jounin teacher.

But who to send?

… Well, (mentally) speaking of Inuzuka in his previous thoughts, there was a team who would benefit from this investigation, wasn’t there? A long-track mission but still within the Land of Fire, so it would be relatively safe for them. A no-name missing-nin couldn’t be stronger than a chunin, so a team of genins and a jounin will be able to deal with the situation if the missing-nin turned out to be hostile, not just jaded and trying to live a honest life.

He snorted. 

A ninja. Living a honest life. That was laughable at best, an insult at worst. 

“Eiji, can you call Team 8 to my office? I have a mission for them.”