Naruto: Starting as the Third Hokage with Tears in His Eyes

Just as they were hesitating whether to rush in and see what was going on, the office door was gently pushed open.

"Hey, what's for dinner? Ding said his uncle's barbecue restaurant got a new batch today..."

A boy with the same pineapple-shaped haircut, but whose face was full of laziness and sleepiness, walked in yawning.

It was Nara Shikaku.

Then, he saw the scene before him.

His own father, the chief strategist of Konoha Village, the acting Hokage, and the head of the Nara clan, was prostrating himself, half his body buried in a pile of scrolls, his hands still stuck in his hair, his body twitching slightly from heavy breathing.

The office was in a mess, as if it had just been ransacked by a tailed beast.

The air was thick with despair.

Nara Shikaku's yawn froze.

He blinked, and a quick glint of analysis flashed in his usually lazy eyes, before turning into a deeper weariness.

"Ugh... this is such a hassle..." he drawled, letting out a weak sigh. "Looks like we won't be having barbecue tonight."

Upon hearing his son's voice, Nara Shikano seemed to have his last bit of strength drained away. He slowly raised his head from the pile of scrolls, his face a mixture of grief, despair, and a hint of grievance at seeing his loved ones.

"Shikaku..." his voice was hoarse, "It's over...it's all over..."

"What's over?"

Shikaku strolled over slowly, carefully avoiding the scroll on the ground, picked up the still swaying mushroom, brought it to his nose and smelled it. "Hmm, is this a shiitake mushroom that Uncle Akimichi sent? It smells quite fresh. We can make shiitake mushroom stewed chicken tonight."

"It's not a mushroom! It's the Hokage!"

Deer Antlers suddenly scrambled to his feet, snatched the mushroom from his son's hand, and slammed it to the ground. Pointing at the innocent communicator, he angrily accused, "Hang up my communications!"

"Oh, it's over."

Shikaku reacted calmly, and even yawned again. "Then just call again."

"Hit him again?! Listen to what he's saying!"

The antlers trembled with rage, mimicking Hiruzen Sarutobi's tone perfectly: "Feed? Feed? Antlers? Signal... signal is bad, I can't hear you... buzz... buzz..."

"What?! Tobirama-sama invented a chakra wave communicator that can make high-definition calls even underwater! And you're saying the signal is bad! If you had even a shred of conscience for this village, you wouldn't have come up with such a lame excuse!"

Deer Antlers paced back and forth in the office like an agitated lion.

"He's going on an inspection tour! An inspection tour! He's the Hokage, why isn't he in the village reviewing documents? He's off on an inspection tour of another country! The Hokage just wants to skip work! He just wants to go out and have fun!"

"Shikaku!"

The antlers stopped, grabbed his son's shoulders, and shook him violently. "Look! Look at this!"

He pointed to the mountain of documents.

"Danzo's 'Supplementary Feasibility Study for the Third Phase of Urban Redevelopment in the Land of Lightning and the Construction of the Cloud Village Hub Station in the Pan-Continental Railway Network,' is over 800 pages long! He even wrote down what material the Cloud Village's sewer covers were made of! Do I need to know this?!"

"And there's Sakumo, over five hundred pages!"

"The most outrageous one is Orochimaru!"

The antlers wore a look of utter disbelief. "A Preliminary Conception of a Third-Generation Controlled Nuclear Fusion Energy Revolution Using Tailed Beast Chakra! The table of contents alone is fifty pages long! Fifty pages of table of contents! Does he want me to write a research proposal for his thesis?!"

"They dumped a complete mess on me!"

A series of roaring complaints caused a crack to appear on Nara Shikaku's usually calm face.

He was silent.

He glanced silently at his father, then at the reports whose names alone sent chills down his spine.

Suddenly, I realized that I should never become a Hokage advisor.

It's too mentally taxing.

That's too much strain on your voice.

"Dad,"

Shikaku patted his father's shoulder sympathetically. "How about... we run away too?"

The deer antlers suddenly froze.

Looking at his son's earnest face, a deeper sorrow welled up in his heart.

What sins have I committed to give birth to such a thing?

He is Nara Deer Antler; he can complain, he can go crazy, but he can't really quit.

This is a sense of responsibility ingrained in the Nara clan.

The office fell silent once again.

Deer Antlers slumped back into the chair, staring blankly at the mess on the floor.

He'll probably be sleeping in his office for the next few months.

They even started seriously considering the feasibility of moving their bed from home to the new place.

However, just as he was sinking into utter despair, his gaze inadvertently swept over the few reports he had specifically mentioned, reports so thick they could be used as bricks.

Danzo's infrastructure.

Shuo Mao's agriculture.

Orochimaru's scientific research.

A thought, like a bolt of lightning in the dark rainy night, struck his mind without warning.

and many more……

Why should I be the only one to read these reports?

The deer's breathing suddenly stopped.

His brain, which had been shut down due to exhaustion, started working again at an unprecedented speed at this moment.

He slowly reached out and picked up Danzo's more than 800-page report from the ground.

Then, he picked up Sakumo's report, which was over 500 pages long.

The corners of his mouth slowly curved into a strange smile.

Looking at the familiar smile on his father's face, the smile that only appeared when he was cornering his opponent on the shogi board, Shikaku suddenly had a bad feeling.

Deer Horn pulled a brand new pen from the pen holder and spread out a blank Hokage Order.

"Shhh..."

The pen tip slid across the paper, making a rapid and clear sound.

He looked up at his son, whose bloodshot eyes no longer held weariness and despair, but instead shone with wisdom and... mischievousness.

"Shikaku."

"what?"

"Go and summon the heads of the garrison, the construction department, the farm planning department, and Team Zero."

"Now?"

"Yes, now."

Deer Horn lowered his head, his pen moving continuously, the smile on his lips growing wider. "Tell them, the Hokage has important instructions."

"Regarding the construction of the railway network in the Land of Lightning, an environmental assessment must be conducted by the Konoha Ecological Farm to ensure that it will not affect the future migration route of the Sand Scorpions from the Land of Wind."

"Furthermore, some plans also require biosafety certification from Class Zero. Orochimaru must provide a report proving that this creature will not cause any unpredictable genetic mutations to our chakra energy network."

"As for Orochimaru's energy revolution..."

The deer paused, a devilish smile spreading across its face.

"Have Danzo's construction department review it. Tell Danzo that, given the uncertainty of whether this new energy source will trigger a violent explosion, any related experimental equipment must be constructed according to the explosion-proof standards of an S-class war fortress. Have him hand over the blueprints to me tomorrow morning."

A cat-and-mouse game revolving around when the Hokage will return home has officially begun.

The first step in the game is to get the mice that are causing trouble for the cat to fight amongst themselves.

Nara Shikaku stared blankly at his father, who had suddenly "resurrected" and whose fighting power had exploded. He opened his mouth, but in the end, he swallowed back the words, "You are abusing your power."

He simply turned around silently and walked towards the door.

Well, notifying people is easier than reading reports.

He just didn't know why, but he always felt...

The days ahead seem more troublesome than before.

This feeling intensified as he lazily sent out his father's "Hokage Orders," which were enough to cause a minor earthquake in the upper echelons of Konoha.