Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.
If there was one thing Tsunade hated about being Hokage as much as paperwork, it was the complaints. Everyone in the Village thought their complaints could only be settled by the Hokage personally. Whatever the complaint or problem she would hear about it. Whether it was something minor like two silk merchants arguing about whom had the better product or something major like the Hyuuga Clan trying to forcibly buy up more land from the Nara Clan. The seemingly endless line of complaints was the second greatest enemy to all Kage in the Hidden Villages.
The true problem with complaints however were that some just could not be ignored or delegated to someone else. Complaints like the one from the Konoha Advisors about allowing Naruto to take high class and high profile missions. If she ignored the complaint the Advisors would take it the Village Council. Now the Village Council only had written power when it comes to civilian matters of the Village, such as trade development and non-shinobi education. However there were enough high-level ninja on the council that they could cause disruption among the shinobi forces. Missions would not be taken, orders 'misinterpreted,' materials 'misplaced' were all symptoms of complacent Village Council. Thus the Advisors complaint had to be addressed by Tsunade personally and immediately. Unfortunately for Tsunade the complaint before her currently was a continuation from a previous one…
Flashback
"Hokage-sama please do not take this the wrong way but could your decision about Uzumaki be based on your personal feelings for the…boy?" Homaru asked.
"Quite the contrary," Tsunade said smoothly. "If I let my personal feelings about Naruto sway my judgment I would actually agree with you. I would keep him here in the Village were he would be safe and protect him personally. However my decision to put him on the active roster of Shinobi is based on his abilities of as a shinobi. Jiraiya, Yamato and Kakashi have affirmed that Naruto's skills are at least new Jounin. Combined with Kakashi's leadership and Haruno Sakura's, whom I trained personally, partnership, Naruto is more than ready to face the missions and dangers that are facing the Village."
"And if he were to be captured by the Akatsuki or worse loose control and use the Kyuubi's power, then what?" Koharu asked.
"First, if you had read Naruto's file you would have realized that Naruto loosing control of the Kyuubi is almost nil," Tsunade replied. "His necklace, the Bloodline Limit he inherited from his mother and the Yondaime's Seal all repress and subdue the chakra. The only way for the Kyuubi power to even manifest in the slightest is through Naruto's will. And the Akatsuki threat…"
"Yes about that," Koharu interrupted. "We feel that there should be another skill ninja to fill the missing roster point on Team Kakashi. We acknowledge the words of some of our two shinobi about Naruto's skill, but the threat from Akatsuki is just too much of a risk. The empty roster position must be filed."
Tsunade looked contemplative for a moment. She knew these two would pull this and the truth is they were correct. As good as Team Kakashi was they could use just some back up. But as she knew what Koharu and Homura would try she already had a response. "I agree," the Advisors looked pleased and were about to speak, but Tsunade continued; "However the final selection will come down to Kakashi as it is his team. You may of course recommend any ninja you feel is up to the task and I shall do the same."
"Yes that is reasonable," Homura replied unsettled. He knew they had just been outmaneuvered by Tsunade, because Kakashi would never allow their recommendation to join his team. Still he needed to save face even if just a little. "These are our recommendations," from inside his yakata he pulled out two file folders, "the first is a genius on par with Uchiha Sasuke. He was trained by a former Anbu Commander and is quite skilled. His name is Sai." Tsunade took the file and made a cursory glance at it. The information was impressive but ultimately meaningless; the file was assuredly doctored. "And our second recommendation is the veteran Jounin, Ishigami Roh. His service record is excellent and his experience would be a good addition to Team Kakashi." Tsunade took another cursory glance at the file. She knew the Jounin, he was good but not good enough. This was probably just some file the Homura had on him at the time.
"I will give these to Kakashi and he'll look over them," Tsuande said handing the files off to Shizune. "Now I have duties to attend, I'll see you later…"
End of Flashback.
"You are complaining because Kakashi has not made a decision yet, why?" Tsunade asked. Koharu and Homura come after a week of not hearing anything from Kakashi. This time they were not alone, they pulled Danzo with them. Danzo was an old war veteran from the Second Great Shinobi War. His long service cost him an eye and the permanent use of his right arm. Now He was one of Tsunade's military advisors so he had the right to be here. Personally she hated the man, he represented everything she and all the previous Hokage's were against; a military state in Konoha. But any good leader knew that to get the best advise they needed at least a few people that would argue with them instead of just a bunch of yes men. The fact that Danzo was actually a brilliant strategist secured his role as a military advisor.
"We are not so much as complaining as inquiring why it is taking so long," Danzo answered. His voice was calm and precise like this was just a simple game to him. "The longer he waits the higher the chance an emergency comes up. If that happens you may have to send out whatever forces are available regardless of their preparedness. If that is Team Kakashi then they would be at a disadvantage."
"Kakashi is going over all the recommendations that have been submitted to him," Tsunade answered. "From you, me, some of his own ideas and even a couple of requests from other Jounin. The truth is Team Kakashi was high profile and highly requested even before Sakura and Naruto's extensive training. And now that word has gotten out about Naruto's training under Jiraiya and Sakura's training under me the a lot of people want in. Kakashi is merely trying to sort out who will working for the good of the team or just wanting to further their own career."
The three actually agreed with this. They could see ambitious shinobi wanting to be put on such a team even if temporarily. With the wide variety of missions Team Kakashi could potentially go on; medical relief, land restoration, body guards, assassinations; just being on the team would get a shinobi's name out there. This would lead to more personal requests and greater amount of high paying missions. The fact they were essentially doing the same thing was not lost on them, not that it bothered them.
Danzo had been observing Tsunade's body language from the moment he, Koharu and Homaru walked in. In the beginning she was annoyed, toward the middle she was suspicious and cautious, now she was relaxed and confident. 'She has legitimate responses for every argument we can come up,' Danzo realized. 'All she has to do is foist responsibility off on Kakashi as she already put it in his hands. If we try to push her to push him she will just say rushing Kakashi would be detrimental to the situation and then use our previous arguments against us. We've been outmaneuvered again. I knew we should have waited longer, but Koharu and Homaru were getting nervous and impatient. Tsuande won this round.' Danzo respected Tsunade, for all her faults she was a good leader, problem solver and military commander. He still hated her and thought her policies were too soft just like the Sandaime, but he could acknowledge she was a formidable opponent in the game of politics. "Thank you for the update Tsunade-sama, we apologize for our impatience." Danzo stood, gave a half heart bow and left the room. His two coconspirators quickly following.
Once they were gone Tsunade turned to Shizune, "Find Kakashi and bring him here, but do is quietly."
"Yes Tsunade-sama," Shizune nodded.
In an isolated training area Naruto was sitting on a large rock under a small waterfall that had not been there the day before. Naruto created the waterfall to aid in his current phase of training, Fire Chakra training. This was the second of four phases of training his charka to form fire. The first phase was learning to generate heat from his lungs as most Katon (Fire Element) came from the mouth. The second stage of training was learning to maintain that heat under non-favorable condition, near water and in the cold. Naruto sitting under a waterfall accomplished both. The Third stage involved generating heat from different parts of the body; fingers, feet, back etcetera. The final phase was the hardest, its goal was to generate heat from any part of the body and maintain it under adverse conditions.
Every now and then Naruto would take a deep breath and expel it over a tora (Tiger) hand seal and see the results. The goal was to generate enough heat so he could see wavy air like in a desert without causing a flame. If he produced too much heat he would be simply doing a weak Katon Jutsu instead of mastering the Fire Chakra affinity. The difference between using a jutsu and mastering it was mastering the jutsu required understanding the steps that led to the jutsu's result. Similar to the difference between using a calculator and working out a math problem on paper, both accomplish the same result only working out the problem out on paper showed the person understood the whole process, a calculator just give the answer.
Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled over his tora seal. When the heated air came out a line of heated air progressed about five meters from his mouth. After a few seconds of breath part of the stream ignited into a flame. Naruto immediately stopped and took a deep breath to get oxygen back into his lungs. 'Too narrow this time and the air ignited,' Naruto thought. 'The last time was too wide and the heat dispersed too quickly for me to see any heat columns. So too wide and the heat is too spread out and too narrow causes combustion, just like Ero-Sennin said. I have to make the air stream just a bit wider so it doesn't ignite again.'
Taking a deep breath Naruto was about to try again when he felt a couple of people enter his area. One of the side effects of his training was Naruto discovered when he used his jutsu some of his chakra remained in the area. This became a sort of early warning system for him because when a new person entered it sent a ripple through the charka and back to him. "Who's there!" Naruto called out. He knew he was a wanted man but felt reasonably safe in Konoha's territory, so he called out. If they replied chances were they were friends, if not then they were most likely enemies.
"Just me and Ino!" Sakura called out. A couple of seconds later Sakura and Ino came upon Naruto's little waterfall just as Naruto finished putting his black shirt back on. "What are you doing way out here Naruto?"
"Need a lot of room to train my Katon Affinity," Naruto answered. "Fire is often the hardest Element to control in terms of side effects. I didn't want any building to catch fire or someone getting burnt."
"Good thinking," Ino said, "I once saw Chouji put too much lighter fluid on a barbeque once. It flashed and soon the entire counter at his family restaurant was on fire." She giggled for moment before continuing, "Took him two months to pay his Outo-san (Father) back for the damages." Ino took a moment to look around the area, "You know, I don't remember there being a waterfall here?"
"That's because I made it today," Naruto said proudly. "Used Doton: Joushou Chiri Dobei (Earth Element: Rising Dirt Wall) to form the small ridge and Suiton: Kousen (Water Element: Underground Spring) to connect a local spring to create the actual waterfall." The kunoichi were rather impressed with Element Manipulation giving nods of approval. "So what do you want?"
"I'm here because Kakashi-sensei asked me to tell you we'll be meeting at the Hokage Tower tomorrow for our first mission," Sakura answered. "Ino just decided to tag along."
"Actually I wanted to thank you for the Orchid," Ino answered. "My mom put in our family green house and so far its' doing pretty good."
"I knew you'd do a great job taking care of it," Naruto proclaimed.
Ino blushed a little at the praise but not enough for Naruto to notice, Sakura however did. 'Does Ino like Naruto?' she thought
"Well Mom asked me invite you over for dinner to thank you the Orchid," Ino said her blush a little more pronounced. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sakura smile like Cheshire cat. "So how about after your mission?" Ino asked quickly, she wanted to get away before Sakura could start to tease her.
"I'm sorry but that will have to wait," Naruto apologized causing the girls to look at him surprised neither thought he would turn down a home cooked meal. "I already promised Tenten I'd take her out after my first mission." The girls' faces went from surprised to shock. "Said she wanted to try out her new dress I got her."
"Yo…you have a date with Tenten?" Ino asked utterly astounded.
"Da…date!?" Naruto almost yelled. "N…no we're just going out to eat at…" After brief bout of denial realization came to him that he actually might have a date with Tenten. "I've n…never been on a date b…before." Naruto went from stunned to panic, "Damn what the hell am I going to do!? The only thing I know about dating is to not do what Ero-Sennin tries!" Naruto started pacing back and forth, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" After several paces and further ranting Naruto stopped suddenly and faced the girls. For a moment Naruto was about to say something but he shook his head and said something else, "Sorry to run off like this, but I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow Sakura-chan, bye Ino." Naruto took off leaving the stunned former rivals alone.
Both kunoichi were stunned at the idea of Naruto going on a date with someone. Sakura more so, as she had thought the only person who thought of Naruto that way was Hinata. And even then Hinata would never ask Naruto out on a date, it was not in her nature to take the incentive in something like this. Asking a guy out was in Ino's nature and she even did it on several occasions over the pasted two years. Those dates never lead to anything but it proved Ino had the drive to ask a guy she interested in on date. Still for Ino to ask Naruto to dinner, even if they would not be alone, was not something Sakura had ever predicted. Ino was the kind of girl that went for the cute guys, ones that had slightly feminine looks like Sasuke, not rough hard looks that Naruto developed on his time away. Then there was Tenten. Sakura never knew the girl all that well so she did not know what kind of guy she liked. But she seemed more like the kind of girl who would flirt with a guy and leave subtle hints that she wanted to be asked out, then accept. And even if Sakura did not know what kind of guy Tenten liked she could picture Naruto and her together. For that matter Sakura could not picture any girl and Naruto together. A possible remnant of view of Naruto from when they were both Gennin.
Ino was stunned because she was stuck between shock, surprise, a bit of jealousy, anger, and a bit of joy. She was surprised for a similar reason as Sakura, she could not really see any girl liking Naruto as a potential boyfriend. Shocked because no guy had ever turned her down for date in two years. Granted none of them worked out because those guys thought she was too forceful in personality. Ino just thought those guys could not handle a strong woman like her. Ino was jealous because Naruto had put Tenten before her, disregarding the fact Tenten asked first. To Ino it was almost like Naruto said she was not as good as Tenten. This led to the anger, for Ino saw herself as second to no girl in their age group and a part of her felt she needed to prove that to Naruto. The joy Ino felt came from the fact that before Naruto left the two had become better friends. She had reached an understanding of just why Naruto acted the way he did as a kid. That understanding allowed her to see Naruto for what he really was, a kind, caring, brave, foolish at times, but rather likeable guy. The part of her that was saw Naruto as a friend was happy that someone thought of him as a potential boyfriend. Sadly that part was buried under Ino's competitiveness, jealously and her own budding attraction to the upcoming Elemental Master.