"You can come in."

Konohamaru entered the Hokage's office. Nostalgia hit him like a raging truck. But that's not important now.

He was summoned by Kakashi- sorry, the Sixth Hokage- by the utmost importance.

Doesn't he usually summon Naruto for these special missions? Like the moon quest? Konohamaru smiled proudly. Man, at least he finally got a promotion in rank. Should've gotten it straight after the War ended, quite frankly. No one would've complained, that's for sure.

"Please sit over here, Mr Sarutobi." Kakashi's secretary said. Konohamaru wanted to snigger but couldn't. The rumours he heard about these two, oh boy...

Duty first. He went towards the Hokage's desk, politely waiting for the leader of the leaf ninjas to speak.

"Hello Konohamaru. You've grown quite a bit since the last time I saw you," Kakashi said, obviously wanting to break the ice.

"Thank you Sixth," Konohamaru replied. "I assumed, judging by the urgent message, you summoned me for a mission?"

"Perhaps. But not quite."

Eh? Is he trying to imitate his late grandpa or something? "Pardon me Hokage, but I don't understand what you're saying."

The Sixth cleared his throat. "Let me explain. You have access to the Third Hokage's items, is that correct?"

"Well, yeah, I have access to grandpa's storage shed, but so does dad and Aunt Kurenai. What does this have to do with me?"

Kakashi continued. "You see, there is a seemingly plain item that belonged to the Third, which contains a secret scroll hidden within. My intel says it was located in a monkey figurine that belonged to him a long time ago."

A monkey statue... oh yeah! "Does it have cymbals attached to its hands? And did the figurine have a pipe in its mouth?"

Kakashi's eyes gleamed. "The very same." he said. "I need you to retrieve it for me. This scroll is very important. Only a direct heir of the Sarutobi clan can retrieve it."

Konohamaru hesitated, but he had to say it. "Errm... I sort of already gave it to someone."

Kakashi froze.

"To Naruto."

You couldn't tell if you didn't know him, but the Sixth immediately relaxed after hearing that. Gave you a fright eh, old man? Konohamaru sniggered.

"That doesn't matter. At least we know it's location. You have to bring it to me until sunset. Understood?"

Konohamaru didn't want to disobey the Hokage of all people, but he had to ask this question.

"If I bring the statuette here, does this mean we're gonna have to break it?"

Sure, it didn't belong to him. But it did belong to his grandpa once. He hoped they didn't have to...

"What we'll do with it we'll see later. Right now, you need to retrieve it as soon as possible. And one more thing," Kakashi added. "Naruto mustn't know about the scroll. Understood? This doesn't concern him. This is a part of your inheritance as a Sarutobi. You must understand that."

Konohamaru looked at Kakashi. He didn't see the Sixth with a such a serious face since the meteorite showers. Or since the War, if you want to be precise...

Konohamaru nodded. "Understood, Sixth. I'll be right back."

He nodded out of curtsy, then left the office after the secretary told him to. After he left, she looked at her boss.

"Sixth, are you sure it was wise to not tell him about the Sword of Kusanagi? Maybe he would've been more motivated to retrieve the item like that."

Kakashi shook his head. "The less he knows for now, the better. We don't know if this scroll is actually in the statuette after all."

"But, didn't you say before that your source is 100% reliable?"

"True, true. But I don't believe intel completely until I see proof of what is said. Strong enough rumours often tend to be mistook for facts."

She nodded, understanding perfectly what he meant.

Author's Notes

EDIT: So the journey begins. I've decided to split the first two chapters. Thank you for your patience!

This story-line was bugging me for months. Not much is found about the period after The Last, but before Boruto's story-line.

Hell, I'm still wondering what the Minato part of the Naruto Project was. Talk about a missed opportunity by Mr Kishimoto.

I hope you enjoyed it. Please rate and review. Feedback is much appreciated!