Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any properties in this work that I did not make myself.

Harold of Konoha

Chapter twenty-nine: To advise a Hokage (AKA a Whole Episode Flashback that Harold uses to tell the story of the Fourth Hokage's first days on the job)

One early January day in the village of Konohagakure, Naruto Uzumaki, the current Hokage, was in his office, working on some forms at his desk. In the office talking with Naruto were Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha. A stunned look crossed Naruto's face after Sakura had finished recounting a story from her work at Konoha General. "…So Kankuro was the only person to have survived the motel explosion," Naruto said slowly, "How?"

"He had one of the Konoha-brand Pod Shields on hand at the time of the explosion," Sakura explained, "The only thing Kankuro suffered was a loss of hearing which, thanks to the medical expertise of the medic ninjas of Konoha General, proved to only be temporary. Kankuro's hearing had returned to him in full sometime yesterday."

Sitting back in his chair, Naruto sighed before saying, "You know, I wonder how previous Hokage would deal with any stress that they felt because of the stupidity of those working under them."

"I demand an explanation, Lord Sixth!" a familiar voice shouted in demand; not one second later, Harold Fisher, one of Konoha's oldest active jonin (one of the oldest active shinobi overall) and the uncle of Sakura, came walking, almost stomping, into Naruto's office.

"Speaking of the stupidity of those working under Naruto," Sakura muttered under her breath.

"Can I help you with something, Mr. Fisher?" Naruto asked, pinching the top of his nose bridge.

"I would like to know why the price of Pape Konoha's Brand Lager has jumped by six ryo per twelve pack!" the Fisher patriarch demanded.

"I'm not in charge of stuff like that!" Naruto remarked, "You'll have to take it up with whatever store's selling it!"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Harold said, "Boy, if Lord Fourth were alive, he'd totally help me and my buds out of our pinch! Inoichi, Tsume and I were his three advisors, after all."

"Wait, what?!" Sasuke said in a tone of total disbelief, "The three of you were the Fourth Hokage's advisors? Are you serious?!"

"Well technically, Kuromaru was also an advisor since Tsume always brought him along, so in reality Lord Fourth got four advisors for the price of three," Harold replied.

"…I would like to hear more about this," Naruto replied; not only had the sixth lord just verbally wished to learn more about the previous Hokage, but Naruto had another reason for wanting to learn more about Lord Fourth. (1) Both Sasuke and Sakura regarded their friend and teammate with surprised looks.

"…Naruto, are you sure you want to do this?" Sakura said, "You know how crazy the stories that my uncle or either of his friends tell can get."

"Yeah, I asked about his teenage years this one time, and I got some spiel about Knuckles the Echidna and Aquaman," Sasuke offered, "I'm going to have to side with Sakura on this one."

"If I get to learn more about the Fourth Hokage, then I'll put up with whatever," Naruto replied.

"Well alright, we got us a story time!" Harold proclaimed as he walked over to the side wall of the office, grabbed the one end of the two-seater sofa, and proceeded to drag it over and around so that it was a few feet in front of and facing Naruto's desk. The Fisher patriarch proceeded to do the same with an armchair, putting it right up next to the two seater sofa on its right (if you were facing it while standing behind Naruto's desk).

Gesturing to the armchair he moved, Harold said to Naruto, "Lord Sixth, if you would be so kind." Mildly confused but not caring due to the allure of potentially learning more about the Fourth Hokage, Naruto got up from his desk and sat in the armchair. At Harold's direction, Sasuke and Sakura sat in the two seater sofa, with Sakura sitting between Sasuke and Naruto. Taking a seat in Naruto's desk chair, Harold faced the three younger adults as he said, "Now then kiddies, you better get comfortable, because this is a long one."


(OVER THIRTY YEARS AGO)

(KONOHAGAKURE, HOKAGE OFFICE BUILDING)

Minato Namikaze was standing in his new office in the Hokage office building. It was his first day as the fourth Hokage of Konohagakure. Looking at the wall where portraits of the previous Hokages hung, Minato truly felt humbled; he was now doing what they had done before him. However, whereas Minato was collected and quiet, his wife Kushina, who had come to the office with him for some reason, could not contain her excitement. Her husband was officially the biggest big wig of Konoha now, after all.

"You're the Hokage now, Minato!" Kushina exclaimed excitedly, "This is your office!"

"Y-yes, it is my office now, dear," Minato replied, mildly taken by surprise by his wife's enthusiasm; he knew that Kushina would be excited over him being Hokage now, but Minato had realized that he had underestimated his wife's excitement. Running over to the big desk in the room, Kushina started swiping her hands all over the desk's surface.

"This is your desk!" Kushina exclaimed.

"That is my desk," Minato replied, realizing that his wife was now momentarily lost.

Sitting in the desk chair behind Minato's desk, Kushina started spinning around in it as she called out, "This is your chair!"

"Yes, that is my chair," Minato replied, and adding, "Not a ride," in his mind.

Getting out of the chair, Kushina ran over to the two seater sofa against the one wall and laid on it. "This is your sofa!" Kushina exclaimed, "And it's loads more comfortable than the one that we have at home! Let's swap them!"

"I don't think I can get away with that," Minato pointed out. (2)

"Pfft, you're the Hokage, hon!" Kushina replied in a dismissive tone, "You can do whatever you want!"

"Technically I am just as bound by Konoha law as the average citizen," Minato said, "And one of the things I'm pretty sure that folks will frown upon is if I swap the sofa in my office here for the one we have at home."

"But this is a really soft sofa!" Kushina insisted, "I bet that if we do swap them, the next time Mikoto comes over to visit, I bet that little Itachi will totally fall asleep on it and it will be so adorable to look at because you know Mikoto always brings little Itachi with her whenever she comes to visit and-"

Kushina was cut off when the door to Minato's office was thrown open. Immediately afterwards, Harold Fisher came dancing in, followed by Inoichi Yamanaka and Tsume Inuzuka; all three ninja were wearing matching fedoras (white with black bands) and were holding them so that the rims were over the left eye. All three were doing jazz hands with their right hand as they came in one by one. Once all three of them were in the office, they stood next to each other and they continued to dance in place, strutting forward a few steps, then backwards a few steps, and kept that up for a few more seconds before they fell to their knees, throwing off their fedoras for an extra flare. After this, Kuromaru came trotting into the room, looking mildly embarrassed.

"Can I…help you three?" Minato asked the three ninja.

As the three ninjas got up, Harold said as Tsume went about collecting the fedoras, "Well first off, the boys and I just wanted to give you a big congrats on scoring the Hokage job."

"Top kek!" Inoichi declared, giving Minato double thumbs up.

"Well thank you for the consideration," Minato replied, "I'll have to admit, I wasn't expecting anyone to congratulate me with a little dance number."

"Is there anything else we can help you with?" Kushina asked Harold and company, "Because Minato has a lot on his plate. He's the Hokage now, after all."

"The boys and I are also here on some official business," Harold continued. More directly to Minato, Harold said, "As you are aware, as the Hokage, you can have up to three advisors."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Kushina exclaimed, "Minato, dear, I took the liberty of scouting out some potential candidates to fill the three advisor positions."

"Who did you have in mind, dear?" asked Minato.

"I was thinking Mikoto, Michelle and Mebuki," Kushina replied, "I think the three of them would help you lead Konoha into the right-"

"BHUHAHAHAHAHAH!" Tsume laughed loudly as she held her arms over her stomach.

Regarding the Inuzuka matriarch, Kushina said in a mildly offended tone, "Is there a problem, Tsume?"

"Dude, with all due respect, your ideas for advisors to the Hokage suck," Tsume replied as she wiped a tear from her right eye.

"She's right, you know," Inoichi remarked, "As much as I dearly love my wife, Michelle does not have what it takes to advise a Hokage on matters prevalent to Konoha."

"Out of your three choices for advisors, only one of them, Mikoto, has any experience being a ninja," Tsume continued, "And even then, she has long since retired from active duty in order to be a housewife. I swear, you don't see Mikoto anywhere in Konoha without that little snot of hers following her around."

"Itachi is adorable and you leave him alone!" Kushina snapped at Tsume, "Besides which Tsume, aren't you a mother yourself?"

"Yes, but there's a difference between that little turd of Mikoto's and my daughter Hana."

"Oh? And what might that be?" Kushina asked somewhat sarcastically.

"…Hana is not a turd," Tsume replied. Before Kushina could explode at the Inuzuka matriarch, Minato quickly covered his wife's mouth with his left hand.

"So Harold," Minato began quickly, "You brought up me getting up to three advisors."

"Yes I did," the fisher patriarch replied, "And you have no need to scout them out. You wanna know why? Your three advisors-" Harold paused as he gestured to himself, Inoichi and Tsume. "-Right here, man," Harold finished. Out of a mild amount of shock, Minato let the hand he was covering Kushina's mouth with drop.

A bemused look on her face, Kushina replied in a monotone, "…What?"

"Now keep in mind that if you do make the three of your advisors, you're really getting four advisors for the price of three," Harold began.

"What do you mean?" Minato asked, mildly curious.

"There's me, Inoichi, Tsume, and Kuromaru," Harold replied.

"…You mean Tsume's dog?" Kushina replied in a tone of disbelief.

Looking up at Kushina, Kuromaru said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, "Hello there. My name is Kuromaru, and I am NOT judging you based on your species."

Stunned by the fact that Kuromaru could talk, Kushina said quietly, "Well okay then."

"Plus, unlike your wife's selection, which only has one person with ninja experience, the boys and I are all experienced ninja," Harold continued.

"I don't necessarily see how being a ninja would make one a better advisor to the Hokage," Kushina remarked.

To Kushina, Inoichi said, "Well your husband is a NINJA, in a NINJA village. Forgive my friends and I for thinking this, but we had it in our heads that being a ninja MIGHT be a good thing for anyone who's an advisor to Minato."

"You guys…do have a valid point," Minato remarked as he stroked his chin. Looking more directly at Harold and company, Minato said, "Alright, tell you guys what. I'll make the four of you my advisors on a trial basis. I'll let you four have the job for a week, during which time I'll be judging your ability to perform the job. If I'm satisfied, I'll keep you guys on longer. Sound fair?" (3)

"Pretty damn fair, actually," Tsume remarked, "And thank you for acknowledging Kuromaru as an equal member of Konoha society."

"I know how much the Inuzuka shinobi value their ninja dogs, and many of Konoha's greatest heroes of the past were, in fact, Inuzuka clan ninja dogs," Minato replied kindly, "I've got to give credit where credit is due."

After Harold and the others took their leave, Kushina turned to face her husband. "I think you've made a terrible mistake," Kushina remarked casually.

"Only time will tell, honey," Minato replied.

"I suppose you've got a point, dear," Kushina said, "Now then, about swapping our sofa at home for the one in your office here…"


The next afternoon, Shikaku Nara and Choza Akimichi were sitting next to each other at the counter of a local bar in Konoha. As Choza practically shoved a handful of mini pretzels into his mouth, Fugaku Uchiha came walking up to the two men. "Congratulations on the new job that you guys got," the leader of the Uchiha clan congratulated, patting Shikaku on the back (he was siting closest to the bar's open doorway). Both the leader of the Nara and the leader of the Akimichi had confused expressions.

"New job?" Shikaku said questioningly, "What are you on about, Fugaku?"

"One of the men in my clan told me, and I'm quoting him on this one, 'Inoichi Yamanaka and two of his friends are the advisors to the Fourth Hokage'," Fugaku explained. With the other two men continuing to wear confused expressions, Fugaku continued, "It's quite obvious to me that by two of Inoichi Yamanaka's friends, he was referring to the two of you."

"…Choza and I aren't Minato's advisors," Shikaku replied. Now it was the turn of the leader of the Uchiha to wear a confused expression.

"What are you talking about?" Fugaku asked, "If the two of you are not the 'two friends of Inoichi' that one of my clansmen mentioned, then who exactly are the two friends?"

"Yo dudes, check it!" the familiar voice of Inoichi called out, drawing the attention of everyone in the bar to the open doorway; at that moment, Inoichi walked in with Harold and Tsume. All three of them were wearing matching black mitres that had red-violet cloth hanging from it, draping over their shoulders. The mitres also had gold bands going around them approximately in the middle; in the center on the front of these bands were rubies, with a large red feather jetting up from the rubies.

"…You have got to be kidding me," Fugaku muttered under his breath as he and the two men he was talking to watched Harold, Inoichi and Tsume all enter the bar. As Kuromaru came trotting into the bar after Tsume, Shikaku got up and walked over to the group.

"Inoichi, man, what are you and your idiot patrol up to?" Shikaku asked, "And what the hell are up with those hats? You all look like Jafar."

"Well Shikaku my good man, Harold, Tsume and I are Lord Fourth's new advisors," Inoichi explained to his fellow Ino-Shika-Cho trio member, "So obviously, we all had to get appropriate hats for the job."

"It's as I feared," Fugaku muttered under his breath; Choza, the only one who had heard what the Uchiha leader said, had to suppress a chuckle.

"Why the three of you, though?" Shikaku asked the advisors, "What are you trying to get at with this whole shtick of yours?"

"The boys and I have loads of good ideas on how to improve Konoha," Tsume said, "Also, Minato is a cool dude, so he has to have other cool dudes advising him."

"Tsume, you're just saying that because not only did Lord Fourth acknowledge my being there, but he also referred to me as an equal entity," Kuromaru remarked.

"Besides which, if the boys and I didn't become Lord Fourth's advisors, then Lord Fourth would have gone ahead and chosen his wife's picks for the job," Harold replied.

A curious look on his face, Fugaku asked, "Who did Kushina suggest to Minato for the job?"

"My wife, your wife, and Harold's little sister," Inoichi explained to Fugaku, "Personally, and with all due respect, the boys and I believe that those three don't have what it takes to advise a Hokage."

"Well maybe not Michelle or Mebuki," Fugaku replied, "But Mikoto is a jonin-ranked Konoha shinobi." (4)

"WAS a jonin-ranked Konoha shinobi," Tsume pointed out, "She retired from active duty in order to be a housewife and to raise that little turd the two of you made."

"D-did you just insult my four-year-old son?!" Fugaku exclaimed, partly-shocked, partly-disgusted.

"With all due respect, I don't see where you have any leeway to argue," Kuromaru said to the Uchiha leader, "I mean, you DID take Itachi to see a battlefield littered with corpses. On the boy's fourth birthday, no less." (5)

"Because I felt it prudent that he learns about the nature of what it means to be a ninja," Fugaku replied. Turning his gaze at Tsume, Fugaku added, "In fact, I'm not the only parent who took their four-year-old child to a battlefield."

"Hey, at least I didn't bring Hana to that battlefield to teach her about the harsh reality of the world we live in!" Tsume snapped defensively.

"In any case, I hope that the lot of you keep yourselves on good behavior tomorrow," Fugaku said, "From what I heard, Lord Fourth will be entertaining an important visitor."

"…Important visitor?" Harold repeated in a confused tone. Turning to face his friends, Harold said, "How come Minato didn't mention that little tidbit to us?"

"Gee, I cannot fathom why," Kuromaru muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"Lord Third will be dropping in to visit Lord Fourth tomorrow," Choza said as he got up from his stool and walked over, having heard what path the conversation was taking and deciding to throw his two ryo in since he knew about the visit in question. With all eyes on him, Choza said, "From what Minato told me, it's just going to be a friendly visit where Lord Third means to see how Minato is settling into the job. They'll probably enjoy some tea or some other refreshment, shoot the breeze briefly, then Lord Third will go back enjoying retirement."

"…Yo guys," Harold said, "You think Lord Third will like Pape Konoha's Brand Lager?"

"Do you three honestly think it's a good idea for a man Lord Third's age to be drinking alcohol?" Fugaku asked incredulously.

"Actually, Lord Third's favorite drink is Pape Konoha's Brand Lager," Shikaku pointed out, "I should know, as a few months before he stepped down as Hokage, when I visited him at his place, he tossed me a can of Pape Konoha's Brand Lager from his fridge. When I opened the fridge, I saw that the shelves on the inside of the door, as well as all of the bottom-most shelf, were stocked with cans of Pape Konoha's."

To Inoichi and the others, Shikaku said, "So actually, getting some Pape Konoha's might actually be a good idea."

"Woohoo!" Tsume cheered as she pumped both fists into the air.

"Although if I were you guys, I'd eighty-six the hats before the visit tomorrow," Shikaku added.

"Hey, I bet that Lord Third would get a kick out of the totally awesome advisor hats the boys and I are all wearing!" Inoichi defended.


The next morning, Harold and company, with all three humans wearing their advisor hats, were standing outside of the Hokage office building, waiting for it to open; as they wanted to get an early start, they showed up a short bit before the building opened for the day. Sitting on the ground at Tsume's feet were two twelve packs of Pape Konoha's Brand Lager. "Hey, don't you think Lord Third would like some pretzels to go with the good stuff?" Harold suggested rhetorically to his friends as he pointed to the twelve packs of Pape Konoha's.

"Oh snap!" Tsume exclaimed, "I'll go run off and grab a bag or two from the store right now! Kuromaru, you stay here with Harold and Inoichi so that you can help guard the lager!"

After Tsume ran off, Kuromaru said when he turned to face the men, "You know, this isn't the first time that Tsume's left me to guard alcohol for her while she ran off to do something."

As the three guys were standing around still waiting for the Hokage office building to open for the day, they heard a familiar voice call out, "Oh, hello there Harold and Inoichi! Good morning!" The guys turned to see Mikoto Uchiha come walking up. Holding onto Mikoto's left hand was a very sleepy-looking four-year-old Itachi. "Hello and good morning to you as well, Kuromaru," the Uchiha matriarch greeted Kuromaru with a smile. A mildly puzzled look crossing her face, Mikoto added, "Say Kuromaru, where's Tsume?"

"She left me to guard lager for her so she could run off to buy pretzels," explained the Inuzuka ninja dog.

"Well at least you can do the job well," Mikoto remarked. Suddenly, Itachi let go of his mother's hand; the young Uchiha boy walked up to Kuromaru and started petting the top of his head. This drew furious tail-wagging from Kuromaru; as thanks for the petting, Kuromaru licked Itachi's face, drawing a small giggle from the four-year-old. "Aww, well isn't that sweet," Mikoto remarked at the sight of her four-year-old son innocently playing with a dog. To Harold and Inoichi, Mikoto said, "So what are you gentlemen waiting outside the Hokage office building for?"

"The boys and I are aiming to get ready for a very important mission," Inoichi began.

A mildly worried look on her face, Mikoto said, "So the rumors Mebuki and Kushina told me about are true."

"…Rumors?" Harold repeated, "What rumors?"

"That ninja from a hostile village have infiltrated Konoha," Mikoto explained in a worried tone, "And are aiming to assassinate Lord Third."

"Wait, what?!" Harold, Inoichi and Kuromaru all exclaimed in unison.

"Kuromaru, what did I tell you about licking turds?!" Tsume's voice called out as she walked back over to the scene; in her right hand was a plastic grocery bag containing two bags of snack pretzels.

In a mildly annoyed tone (6), Mikoto said, "Good morning, Tsume. How's little Hana doing?"

"Playing princess at home with the rings and other jewelry that she helped me collect," Tsume replied casually (7), "And to what do the boys and I owe this visit?"

"I was heading out to do some early morning shopping," Mikoto replied, "Fugaku has some work to handle, so I brought Itachi with me because he's too young to leave alone. Anyway, I saw Kuromaru and your friends waiting here, so I decided to greet them and talk for a bit."

"Hey Tsume, Mikoto mentioned rumors of hostile ninja aiming to assassinate Lord Third today," Harold said, "She said that when Inoichi brought up the fact that we have an important mission today."

"The important mission we have today?" Tsume repeated, "You mean making sure that Lord third has plenty of pretzels and Pape Konoha's during his visit today, right?"

Nodding in the affirmative, Harold pointed to Tsume commandingly as he said, "That's the one."

The look of worry returning to her features, Mikoto said, "I really cannot stand the idea of hostile ninja being in Konoha." Rubbing her stomach, Mikoto added, "I want Konoha to be a safe place for my children to grow up in."

"…Oh you have got to be kidding me," Tsume said as a look of dawning realization appeared on her face, "You're having another one?"

"I'm thinking Sasuke if it's a boy," Mikoto remarked, "You know, in honor of Lord Third's father. As for if it's a girl…"

"Oh, why don't you use the name Sakura?" Harold suggested.

"…As in Lord Third's mother?" Mikoto replied. (8)

Nodding in the affirmative, Harold said, "This way, regardless if your second child's a boy or a girl, you'll still be honoring the parentage of Lord Third."

Smiling at Harold, Mikoto said, "Thank you for the suggestion, Harold. What Sophia has been saying about you is right on the money. I just wished that Mebuki shared your wife's ideas about you." After saying farewell to Harold and company, Mikoto and Itachi took their leave.

"Pfft," Tsume said in disgust, "Can you guys believe Mikoto is having a second child?"

"Well the Uchiha clan is one of Konoha's four great ninja clans," Harold remarked, "I'm pretty sure that means that Mikoto and Fugaku can afford a second child."

"Dude, if I ever end up making a little sibling for Hana, he or she will be loads cooler than any frigg'en child that Mikoto can ever pop out," Tsume stated.

"Well that's all well and good, you guys," Kuromaru said to the humans, "But we've got a pressing matter to attend to. Mikoto said that she heard rumors of a possible assassination attempt on Lord Third."

"Dude, you're right!" Harold said, "We've got to do some investigating to find the assassins before they strike and take out Lord Third!"


Later, Harold and company were patrolling all over the Hokage office building as Minato received his important visitor. When Harold and Inoichi met up in a hallway, the Fisher patriarch asked, "Yo dude, did either you, Tsume and/or Kuromaru find anything yet?"

Shaking his head in the negative, Inoichi replied, "Sorry, dude. We've come up with jack-squat." As the men talked, Tsume and Kuromaru came walking up.

"Hey Harold, you're apparently in charge of reviewing the staff that works here in the Hokage office building, so maybe you can tell us this," Tsume began, "Those two chicks and one dude, all of them being dark-skinned, who are working various jobs on the ground floor. Are they new here?"

"Well of course they are, since this is the first I'm ever hearing of those guys," Harold replied.

"Damn it, Harold, keeping track of new employees is a very serious and important job!" snapped Kuromaru, "How can you forget to review the employee roster?!"

"I haven't," Harold replied as he pulled out a list from his flask jacket. Unfolding the list, Harold read and reviewed it carefully, and after half a minute or so he said, "We haven't hired any new workers here in the Hokage office building. In fact, the last time anyone was hired to work here was back when Lord Third was still the active Hokage."

"…Maybe we should go talk to these new 'employees', then?" Kuromaru suggested, "Awfully suspicious for them to not turn up until now, and right when there's rumors going around of hostile ninja aiming to assassinate Lord Third." Harold and the others nodded, and together the four of them went down to the main floor to talk to the new 'employees'.

When they got there, Harold and company immediately spotted the two women of the trio; as Tsume had said, the women were both dark-skinned. "Excuse me, ladies," Harold called out, getting the attention of the women.

"…Can we help you?" asked the first woman, a slim yet healthy woman in her early to mid-twenties with straight, shoulder length dishwater-blonde hair.

"My associates and I need to talk to you about the apparent absence of you being hired to work here in the official records," Inoichi began.

"What's with the hats the three of you are wearing?" asked the second woman; just as tall as her companion, she had a noticeably thicker body, yet it was nowhere near big enough to warrant immediate alarm or concern. This second woman had the same length and style of hair as her companion, except the second woman's hair was light brown in color.

"Oh, my friends and I are the three advisors to Lord Fourth," Harold explained, "And as we are advisors, we all figured that we should get the appropriate headwear for the job."

"…Those hats make you all look like Jafar," remarked the first woman in a casual manner.

"Yeah, they get that a lot," Kuromaru replied. As Harold and company talked to the two women, the third dark-skinned person, the only male of the trio, came walking up; he was as tall as the two women, and about as slim as the first one. The dark-skinned man's hair was the same length at the hair of the women, although his hair was jet black, and somewhat wild-looking. The dark-skinned man was carrying a tray of mini sandwiches.

Looking at Harold and company, the dark-skinned man said, "Can we help you?"

"Oh, that's the guy of the trio," Tsume said to her friends as she pointed to the dark-skinned man.

"Yeah, my associates and I are here to ask you and these two women some questions," Inoichi began.

"What kind of questions?" asked the dark-skinned man.

"They concern the apparent lack of any records of you and these two women having been hired to work here in the Hokage office building," Kuromaru began, "We were wondering-"

"HOLY CRAP, A TALKING DOG!" the dark-skinned man exclaimed, dropping the tray he was carrying in surprise and leaping back.

"THEY'RE THE HOSTILE NINJA!" Tsume shouted as she and the guys leapt back; suddenly, the three dark-skinned employees, having turned out to be the hostile ninja aiming to assassinate the Third Hokage, took kunai out from hidden places on their respective persons.

"Damn, we've been found out," hissed the second woman, "The mission's failed! We've got to fall back!"

"Like hell we'll let the lot of you escape!" Harold declared as he and his friends gave chase to the fleeing enemy ninja.

As Harold and company chased the dark-skinned ninja out of the Hokage office building, the fleeing trio all fell over face-first. When Harold and company caught up, with Harold and Inoichi proceeding to knock out and capture the dark-skinned ninja, Tsume and Kuromaru looked around; as such, they discovered that the reason why the dark-skinned ninja all tripped was because Hana and Itachi had pulled a trip-rope trap. "…Hana was aiming to trip ice cream man so Hana and Hana boyfriend can get ice cream," explained the four-year-old Inuzuka girl.

"Wait, you're what with the boy?!" Tsume exclaimed.

"This Hana boyfriend now," Hana explained as she pointed to Itachi.

"HA! Good job, Hana!" Kuromaru exclaimed in laughter as Tsume visibly shook with a mix of confusion and annoyance. Later, as the three ninja, having turned out to be Kumo ninja, were brought in and interrogated, Harold and company, escorting two four-year-old kids who were gotten one ice cream cone each, met up with Minato, Kushina and Lord Third.

"So yeah Minato and Lord Third," Harold said to the Hokages, "The boys and I, with the unexpected help of Tsume's kid and Fugaku's kid, captured the three Kumo ninja."

"Not only did you capture hostile ninja, saving my life in the process, but you also revealed apparent Kumo plots against Konoha in the process," Lord Third said, "The three of you are heroes for sure! Also, what's with the hats?"

"Oh, Inoichi, Tsume and I are Minato's three advisors," Harold explained, "So we figured that we'd get the appropriate headwear for the job."

"Who says you're going to keep the job?" Kushina remarked in a mildly annoyed tone, "Minato said that it would be on a trial basis."

"And I am happy to say that I'll be making you three my advisors on an official basis," Minato added.

"…What?" Kushina said in a monotone, looking at her husband with a neutral expression.

"You three have certainly proven yourselves as not only competent on the job, but worthy of it as well," Minato said to Harold and company, "Therefore, I am officially making the three of you my three advisors."

"Woohoo!" Tsume cheered, pumping both fists into the air.

"You won't regret this dude," Harold said as he took up Minato's right hand and shook it.

"I certainly hope I won't," Minato replied.

"Lord Fourth, you making the boys and I your official advisors won't be a mistake," Inoichi said as he took up Minato's other hand to shake it, "And if I am wrong, then may Konoha get attacked by the Kyubi."

"Pfft, like that will ever happen," Kushina dismissed in a casual tone.

"I have to agree," Lord Third said to the Yamanaka patriarch, "The Kyubi attacking Konoha. That's a good one, Inoichi!" After that, everyone shared a good laugh.


(FLASHBACK OVER)

"…And that's how Inoichi, Tsume, Kuromaru and I saved Konoha," Harold said as he concluded his story to Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, "The end." All three of the younger adults were looking at the older jonin with looks of mixed emotions, although confusion was prevalent on all three of their faces.

"…Kumo ninja tried to assassinate Lord Third?" Sakura remarked in a surprised tone.

"…My brother had an early childhood fling with Kiba's older sister?" Sasuke said, just as quietly and as surprised as his wife.

"…Did you and the others really found out the assassins just because one of them freaked out over seeing Kuromaru talk?" Naruto said in a questioning tone.

"All that and more!" Harold declared as he got up from Naruto's desk. Walking to in front of Naruto's desk, Harold sat on the surface, his legs dangling above the floor, as he said, "Well then, kiddies. Was that a good story or what?"

"Actually…" Naruto replied slowly, "…Yeah. Yeah that was a good story. I got a good amount of insight about the Fourth Hokage. Thank you, Mr. Fisher."

"You want that the boys and I should offer our old advisor hats to your advisors, Lord Sixth?" Harold offered.

"…Yeah, I don't think that's going to be necessary, Mr. Fisher," Sasuke said as kindly as he could manage.

END, CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Author's Notes:

(1) If you don't know why, then leave. Leave right now.

(2) Never let it be said that the Fourth Hokage was not a reasonable man.

(3) I think it's fair.

(4) It's true. Look it up if you don't believe me.

(5) This is also true.

(6) Well how would you feel if someone basically called your four-year-old child a turd while you were within earshot?

(7) And that is why Tsume brought her four-year-old child to a battlefield that was littered with corpses.

(8) Possible head-canon, maybe?

Well, there's chapter twenty-nine for you. I realized that I may have gotten a few things wrong in terms of when they happened, but I'm assuming that there's enogh room in the time table to allow any possible errors at least some leeway. Anywho, I have one more idea for a chapter before I'm going to have to take a break from writing chapters for this story. But more chapters WILL happen.