Chapter 113 Guardian
A few minutes later, the office door was flung open and Iruka-sensei walked in, holding a stack of papers and a sheaf of scrolls.
He glanced at the stunned ninjas standing on either side of the Hokage, as well as the tired smile on the Hokage's face and the smile on Asuma's face.
"Oops, I just missed them, didn't I?"
"Just a little bit," Asuma confirmed. "They did leave in a hurry though. They're going to be late."
"Who's going to be late?" Ryouta muttered as he walked in from behind Iruka. He was a head taller than the average Chunin, almost as tall as Kakashi, so he could easily see Team 10 and their teacher over Iruka's shoulder. "Did you brats just get back?"
"Daily missions," Asuma explained. "Or night missions, I guess. 12-hour missions."
"Then the lesson can wait until the afternoon." Ryouta said specifically to Class 10.
Shikamaru frowned.
"why?"
Ryouta snorted.
"Because I know what you Nara clan members are like when you're sleep deprived. They can wait for a few hours while you guys take a nap."
"Grumpy is right, kids," Asuma agreed. "Come on, you three, get some sleep."
Team 10 complained a few words and then left. Sarutobi smiled, exhaled a puff of smoke, a kind smile appeared on his face, and reached out to take the pipe from his mouth.
"So," he breathed out. "What do you want, Iruka?"
"We both actually have something to talk to you about." Iruka's tone was a little too formal and unfriendly, and the smile on Sarutobi's face disappeared.
He motioned to the other two ninjas at the table to step aside, and after they left, he rested his elbows on the table in front of him and crossed his hands.
"Any questions?"
"Yes." Ryouta growled, and at the same time, Iruka said, "No, it's totally fine."
"We've already discussed this, Ryouta-sensei." Iruka said with a smile, but there was a hint of grit in his tone. "Do you really want someone else to do this?"
"There is no one else." Ryouta replied firmly. "The other surgeons are all idiots..."
"Can you two tell me what happened?" Sarutobi asked, a hint of tired patience in his tone.
"We have some legal documents that we need your approval and stamp."
Sarutobi sat up straighter, and couldn't help but frown when his back made a few unwanted clicks.
"Legal documents?"
"Custody," Iruka explained. "And a designated doctor."
"Naruto's, I guess?" Sarutobi guessed. "I thought Kakashi would be the first one to come to me."
"Actually, they're Naruto and Sasuke's. And technically, these should be Kakashi's forms," Iruka corrected.
"Shouldn't he be the one who brought them to me then?"
Iruka snorted.
"They had all the signatures they needed, he just got a little chicken. And he made a mistake and put my name second, so I had as much right to send them in as he did."
Sarutobi couldn't help but laugh.
"That's not surprising. But that's not like you, Ryouta."
“They’re addictive,” the surgeon snarled. “Like a parasite.”
Iruka smiled.
"He's just mad at them for constantly destroying his tough-guy image."
Ryouta actually grinned.
"Yeah, that's right. The new nurses stopped taking me seriously when they found out I had been teaching a pink-haired girl and two brothers medical ninjutsu. They finally shut up when they realized that the girl could blow their brains out without even channeling chakra."
Sarutobi flipped through the documents Iruka had placed in front of him, scanning the repetitive legal text until he found the area that required a signature.
The forms were impeccably filled out, and he easily affixed his stamp to each one.
"The doctor's form is for the entire seventh class, I guess."
Ryouta nodded and placed his neatly organized stack of papers next to the Hokage's hand for him to sign.
Sarutobi was surprised to find that there was one document that didn't fit in with the rest.
"Ninjutsu confidentiality agreement?" he asked curiously.
Ryouta blinked.
"Uh, yeah. That's normal, right?"
"It is indeed normal for ninjas of Special Jonin and above."
The surgeon simply shrugged.
"Then consider it as a rainy day preparation."
"……All right."
******
"So that blond kid has his mother's chakra," Ryouta suddenly said to Iruka as they walked back to the corridor of the Hokage building.
"what?"
Ryouta sighed.
"Naruto Uzumaki inherited all of the chakra properties of his mother, Kushina Uzumaki." He repeated slowly. "His chakra concentration is three and a half times that of a normal person. And, like the Fourth Hokage, his chakra has double the energy output."
"How did you know?" Iruka asked.
Ryouta sighed again, thinking back to that day three weeks ago.
******
"I don't understand." Ryouta looked at Naruto and said to himself. He was always shrouded in the shadow of that gloomy Uchiha brat.
If Ryouta didn't know him well, he might have said that Sasuke looked bored, as he sat on the wide windowsill of his office, glaring at his exercises, but he knew now that that was just his expression.
The Uzumaki frowned, looking very focused, but he had yet to mend any of the pig bones they were using for practice, while the Uchiha was already halfway done.
"So you don't have any problems walking on water or channeling chakra quickly in ninjutsu?"
Naruto shook his head.
"No problem at all."
"You're not having any trouble bending chakra in those little seals of yours?"
"No problem," he answered without hesitation, playfully dragging out the ending sound of the word "no".
Ryouta grunted and sidled around the pile of folders on the office floor, reaching into the top drawer of his desk and rummaging around until he found what he was looking for - a piece of something with a jagged edge. From the depths of the drawer he pulled out a piece of chakra-infused quartz, about as long as his palm and half as wide, and placed it in Naruto's palm.
"Use your chakra to charge it, boy. Only your own, not that demon friend of yours."
The boy shrugged and did as he was told, holding the crystal between his palms. The quartz changed color from hazy colorless to clear sapphire, a deep, rich blue so intense that it seemed to glow in its own light.
The Uchiha paused his movements, a pig femur he had broken in half, and leaned over Uzumaki's shoulder, looking at the crystal with interest.
"Is this the color chakra should be?"
"Normal, unfiltered center chakra is usually a light blue," Ryouta replied, reaching for the crystal.
Naruto handed him the crystal in his hand, and Ryouta was surprised to find that the crystal was several times heavier than when he first handed it to him, as if it was made of lead instead of crystal quartz.
"Wait a minute," he said to Naruto, then walked down the hall and yelled, "Shiki!"
