The Hokage Position's Future Holder Was Already Decided

After a while, the person who had requested the mission arrived.

He was an old man dressed like a farmer, with a bottle of liquor in his hand and his face flushed from drinking.

Seeing the old man, Yeyu thought, Is the Land of Waves mission about to begin?

For some reason, I just can't get interested.

Now that he had encountered a plot point from the original story, Yeyu no longer felt the novelty he once had.

Instead, everything seemed rather dull.

The old man was named Tazuna, an engineer from the Land of Waves.

After hearing the details of Tazuna's request, Hiruzen classified the mission as C-rank.

It was just a routine escort mission, with no enemy ninja expected.

Although Yeyu knew ninja would definitely appear during this mission, he said nothing.

Seeing Yeyu sitting in the Hokage Office, Tazuna asked in confusion, "Are the ninja of Konoha really this young?"

He was referring to how someone as young as Yeyu had already been allowed to work in the Hokage Office.

Hiruzen explained to Tazuna, "In Konoha, we care about ability, not age."

Tazuna glanced at Yeyu. "Ability, huh?"

He seemed doubtful.

But Hiruzen and Yeyu didn't explain any further.

Yeyu didn't take it to heart.

After thinking it over, Hiruzen decided to assign this mission to Team 7.

Once Team 7 had been called in, Naruto came through the door and shouted, "Grandpa Hokage, what's our mission this time? Make it a difficult one! I'm sick of catching cats and dogs all day!"

As he spoke, Naruto looked over at Yeyu.

His gaze held both fear and envy.

He feared Yeyu's strength and envied the fact that Yeyu had been promoted straight to Chunin as soon as he graduated.

Yeyu didn't have to do low-level missions with them.

Hiruzen said sternly, "Naruto, you're still trainee Genin. You can only take D-rank missions at most. Stop complaining all the time."

Hearing Hiruzen say that, Naruto started acting like a petulant child.

"Grandpa Hokage, can't you give us a more difficult mission? Otherwise, I'm not leaving!"

Looking at Naruto, Hiruzen sighed.

Kakashi was at a loss, too.

Yeyu, however, wasn't paying attention. His focus was on the mountain of documents piled up on the desk.

Yeyu's salary was quite high. With his allowances, it was almost as much as the Hokage's.

But the workload was terrifying, too.

Many of the documents were classified, yet Hiruzen seemed to have forgotten the rules of confidentiality and handed them all to Yeyu to sort through.

At this point, Yeyu's job was more like a secretary's than an assistant's.

Hiruzen was doing this to teach Yeyu how to handle the village's affairs.

He was preparing him for the day he became Hokage.

Of course, the work was pretty dull, too.

Standing beside Naruto, Sasuke looked over at Yeyu.

Seeing Yeyu diligently sorting through and reading the documents, he frowned slightly. "He spends all his time on trivial tasks like this. Doesn't he worry that it'll interfere with his training?"

Sasuke couldn't understand why Yeyu, despite having such great talent, didn't work harder at training.

Ever since Yeyu had defeated him, Sasuke had made him the target he wanted to surpass.

But he had never once seen Yeyu train.

Yeyu spent all day handling official business. Even with his talent, wouldn't his strength decline if he didn't train hard?

Watching Naruto throw himself on the floor and throw a tantrum, Hiruzen sighed.

"All right, I'll assign you a C-rank mission."

"It's an escort mission."

Naruto immediately sprang up from the floor. "What, what kind of mission? Are we protecting a Daimyo? Or a princess?"

Hiruzen looked utterly speechless. "A Genin can't protect a Daimyo or a princess."

Although the Daimyo couldn't interfere in the village's affairs, he was still the highest-ranking person in the Land of Fire.

At the very least, a Jonin had to be assigned to protect the Daimyo.

The Daimyo's guards had once been the Twelve Guardian Ninja.

All twelve of them were Jonin.

Naruto pouted. "Then who is it? They've got to be important, right?"

Kakashi frowned. "Quiet, Naruto. Let Hiruzen speak."

Now that they were discussing business, Kakashi put a stop to Naruto's antics.

Sasuke and Sakura also looked at Hiruzen, wanting to know what the mission was.

They had grown impatient lately, too. They were always stuck doing boring missions.

Just then, Sasuke thought of Yeyu, who was reading documents nearby. The gap between us is enormous. He became a Chunin the moment he graduated and even became the Hokage's Assistant.

Meanwhile, I can only go on low-level missions with that idiot Naruto.

Sasuke clenched his fists. "I have to become a Chunin as soon as possible. I'll surpass him."

Yeyu had no idea what Sasuke was thinking.

Even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.

Right now, he was just an office worker with a nine-to-five job, going through the same routine every day.

It wasn't a bad life, all things considered.

Hiruzen looked at the four of them and said, "Your mission is to escort this man back to the Land of Waves and protect him until he finishes building the bridge there."

Tazuna, who had been standing off to the side drinking, staggered over and slurred, "Lord Hokage, doesn't Konoha have any ninja?"

"Why are you sending a bunch of kids to protect me?"

"Especially that short, stupid one."

Naruto put his hands on his hips and laughed. "Hahaha! Short and stupid? Who are you talking about?"

After laughing, Naruto gradually realized something was off.

He looked at Sasuke and Sakura's heights.

He was the shortest of the three.

He immediately flew into a rage. "You bastard, I'll kill you!"

Naruto was furious. Tazuna had called him short and stupid.

The worst part was, he'd said it in front of Sakura, whom Naruto liked most, and Sasuke, whom he hated most.

Kakashi quickly stopped Naruto. "Idiot, are you planning to kill the person we're supposed to escort?"

Kakashi was getting a headache.

Naruto's personality was far too unruly. He looked over at Yeyu.

But Yeyu was still looking down at the documents.

"They're the same age. How can they be so different?"

"But wasn't my old team just like that?"

Kakashi thought back to when Minato Namikaze had led him, Obito, and Rin.

His own personality had been much like Sasuke's, while Naruto's was much like Obito's. Sakura wasn't much like Rin Nohara, though.

Still, they both liked people with aloof personalities.

Back then, Rin Nohara had liked Kakashi. Now, Sakura liked Sasuke.

Watching Naruto, Tazuna began to doubt Konoha's strength.

A child was working in the Hokage Office, and the ninja assigned to protect him were three children.

Hiruzen watched the scene and sighed. "All right, Naruto. Do a good job on this mission."

"Don't mess it up."

Naruto immediately straightened up. "Don't worry, Grandpa Hokage. I'll finish this mission for sure. Soon, I'll become a Chunin, and then you'll hand the Hokage position over to me."

Looking at Naruto, Hiruzen's mouth twitched.

But all he could say was, "Just focus on doing the mission properly."

As for the Hokage position, Hiruzen had already decided who would get it.