At the same time that Umi was meeting the wonders of Konoha paperwork, Naruto was being ushered into the workroom of the greatest of all shinobi, since the Rikudo Sennin himself of course. The Sandaime Hokage Sasuke Sarutobi, titled by his enemies as the 'Shinobi no Kami' or god of Shinobi, veteran of 60 years of warfare and subterfuge.

This was not to mention that he had lived through three world wars, both the reigns of all his predecessors, and outlived his successor to the title of Hokage. He wore every one of those years in his office, his wrinkled form dwarfed by the gnarled oak desk that had been created by the first Hokage, the piles of paperwork only adding to the image.

This did not mean that the man could not be commanding and intimidating when necessary however, even as he entered Naruto could feel the disappointed gaze of the man he affectionately termed 'Jiji' upon him, and squirmed like the admonished child in front of his parent. The grizzled shinobi sat back in his seat with a sigh and lit his pipe with a click of his fingers, his gaze never leaving the young shinobi in front of him.

"Naruto, I think we all know what you have done wrong and why you have done it. But you are a shinobi now, and as such cannot get away with the same childish pranking that you did when you were younger." Naruto's breath had stopped at the start of that sentence, thinking that the Hokage knew the truth about Umi, though it quickly became evident that he did not and was only punishing him for the prank.

He quickly bowed his head and apologised, even with all the planning into his project, he had not remembered their would be a consequence to his pranking. Sarutobi puffed out a perfectly formed ring of smoke, and spoke with mild exasperation, gesturing to the pile of paperwork on his left, more than half the work on his desk.

"That pile of paperwork is the first part of the consequences of your actions today. That is at least another 3 hours work for me before I can go home tonight, and the same goes for the civilian administrators and their secretaries. This means that you now owe me for that time, and the time of those you have inconvenienced with your prank." Naruto gulped, contrary to general opinion, Naruto could actually do mathematics when he felt like it, he just found it too boring when there was no real purpose to finding the answers to the problems he was presented with.

In this occasion however he quickly worked out that he had in the process of ensuring Umi's successful integration into the village, clocked himself almost 100 hours of punishment time from the Hokage, and that was if Sarutobi kept it at the lightest sentence that seemed possible, which was to repay every hour with another hour. If the man decided that the punishment was to be more severe on Naruto and to double that time. Naruto flinched slightly as Sarutobi chuckled once more.

"So you realise the magnitude of your efforts today, at least in part. At this point in time Naruto, you owe 371 hours 54 minutes of time to the village of Konoha, as well as 4000 ryo worth of damages." Naruto nearly fainted at that, how had the number got so high? He then remembered that he had not included the work of the shinobi guards, who had chased after him whilst he was performing the prank, or those that had to be drafted in to cover the positions left vacant by the chasers. He gulped and looked up pleadingly to the Hokage, hoping against hope for some level of reprieve. Sarutobi shook his head and wagged his finger at Naruto.

"You are an adult now Naruto, you became one the moment you accepted your headband, and as such, you have to face the consequences of your actions." Naruto's mood had hit an all-time low, there was no way he was going to be able to pay the fine, work off the time, and actually keep his flat and Umi's when she got one. With a deflated sigh Naruto bowed his head dejectedly.

"By your leave then Hokage-sama, I need to go and pack." With Sarutobi raising his eyebrow at the statement but nodding nevertheless, Naruto turned and headed quietly to the door. Just as he reached the door, he turned and asked a surprising question, though his dejected manner obviously hit Sarutobi hard.

"By the way Hokage-sama, a caravan was attacked not far from Konoha today, I met one of the people who survived. Did we catch the attackers?" Sarutobi's eye quirked further, but he responded slowly.

"No, no we did not manage to catch them Naruto, the bandits were gone with their loot and prisoners by the time the chuunin got there, and they have covered their tracks very well." Naruto nodded sadly, as if expecting the answer and then opened the door and moved through it, shutting it quietly behind him leaving the Hokage alone to his work.

Persona Change: Hiruzen Sarutobi; Fire Shadow of the Leaf village

Sarutobi sat back with a heavy sigh, the conversation had gone better than he had expected, and that was the worst part about it he supposed. Naruto had been hit by the truth about the reason he was shunned and hated by the villagers, as well as a few of the shinobi who would not listen to the Hokage's explanations and reasoning, only a few short days ago in one of the most nightmarish scenarios Sarutobi could have possibly thought up.

Then in a rather audacious prank, that was obviously meant to be the boy's way of getting back at the villagers for their misguided dislike in a way that would not cause great harm or damage, Naruto had accidentally and unknowingly forced himself into a position of effective servitude to the village. Sarutobi couldn't lessen the time owed as much as he would have liked to, Naruto was a shinobi now, one of his soldiers.

If he showed anymore favouritism than he already had towards the container, there would be uproar from both the civilian and military sides of his village, though given their own 'subtle' attempts at favouring their friends and families he did wonder if it mattered. Almost half an hour later, just when Sarutobi was at the end of his patience waiting for them to finish debating their next move, the shadow in the top corner of his office finally shifted. The cat masked ANBU from before leapt down silently, standing in front of Sarutobi respectfully, allowing the man to puff on his pipe for a moment longer, in an attempt to reduce the sorrow he felt at dealing out the young boy's punishment.

Finally he took one last long inhalation, and nodded for the woman to speak, his other hand making a gesture for the other ANBU, those who were assigned as his guards at all times, to leave for the moment to allow them some privacy. They did so, only far enough not to be able to hear anything, more than close enough to move to his protection if it was required. The moment that she sensed they were gone, the woman opened up into a respectful but still scything diatribe at him.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, do you realise what you have done? You may have just cost us one of the most promising new genin we had in years. All because of one prank? I admit it was audacious and large, but the ingredients all seemed to have been picked to be removable and not too damaging to clothing, which in itself is a level of forethought that most our ninja will never possess."

"In fact the only damage that was actually done to anything was done by the shinobi pursuing the boy's clones, not the boy himself. Yet you lay all the blame solely on him? Not even Anko gets that level of punishment, and her pranks are sadistic or borderline murderous at times!" She took a large breath of air, but continued well before Sarutobi could think to respond.

"You could have declared it was a training exercise, and that every shinobi that had been caught by Naruto was killed by an enemy assailant. Not only would it have given the boy some respect, it would have been believable as well. 4 ANBU Hokage-sama, that's how many of my men, my soldiers, would have been killed today if Naruto and his clones were infiltrators rather than pranksters. And that's just the clean kills, another dozen in other units would have been maimed or crippled at least. I'm not even going to go into the number of our regular shinobi that were caught up in it…" She seemed to run out of steam, ending up just glaring at the Hokage through her mask.

Sarutobi had to admit he was surprised that she had been so pressing on the subject; she was usually very controlled no matter the situation at hand. Thinking about what she said, he realised it did actually make sense and he voiced it as such.

"I would have covered it with the training exercise ruse if I had thought of it Yugao-san, but I do not think of everything and as such, the boy had to be punished for what he has done. Considering the number of people that were clamouring for his head after this event, claiming this proved he was a menace to the village, his time owed and the monetary fine is some of the nicest things I could have punished him with." He felt the increase in the intensity of her glare at this comment and couldn't help but think he was missing something for a moment before he was brought back to the first thing she had said to him.

"What do you mean, we might lose him? I know it seemed harsh, but Naruto is not going to abandon the village, surely? The fine should be easily absorbed by the money I have been giving him as well as the stipend. As he owns the apartment complex, it's not like he has to pay rent…" He was cut off by the slamming of Yugao's hand into his desk and the spike of fury, that ripped through the room, with such intensity that it was almost palpable.

"You…YOU IGNORANT OLD MAN!" The fact that Yugao, an ANBU captain of Konoha, was here screaming at him at the top of her lungs and killing intent pouring off her like the heat off a blazing inferno, made Sarutobi realise how much a mistake he must have made to earn this reaction from one of the most reserved Kunoichi under his command.

Yugao obviously even shocked herself with her outburst, and the next second the killing intent was gone and she was stood back at attention, eyes cast downwards in submission. The fire and fury were still there however, bubbling just under the surface, even as the rest of her first squad stormed back into the room weapons drawn and ready to fight. They were stopped with a look from Sarutobi and a gesture had them back outside, though no less ready to fight he imagined as he activated several privacy seals this time, just in case the fury of Yugao made a return.

He surveyed the woman in front of him for a minute in silence, noting the uneven flowing of her chakra, which showed a state of extreme emotion in shinobi to the point that they forgot all reasoning. To have garnered such a reaction, he was almost afraid of what he was about to uncover.

"Yugao, take off your mask and sit, I think you have a lot to tell me." Yugao did so carefully, still worried about her leader's reaction to her loss of control.

She took off the mask, revealing a pretty face that was unmarked by combat or disfigurement, a trait that very few elite kunoichi could truly claim. As she placed the mask on the table, she looked down, and Sarutobi belatedly realised that she thought he was claiming her position in punishment for her outburst. He pushed the mask back to her with a gnarled hand to her obvious surprise and he leaned forward, both elbows on the desk and his hands joined underneath his jaw, as he asked the most pertinent question of all.

"Yugao, why might Naruto need to pack his things due to this punishment?" And for the first time, he saw something other than solemnness or anger enter the face of Yugao in almost 10 years, when she had first joined the ANBU at the tender age of 14. Sorrow entered her eyes and her features drooped.

"He, he asked me not to tell you if you didn't ask, and you didn't until now so I wasn't breaking orders by not telling you. Hokage-sama, everything you think you know about Naruto's life has been twisted by the boy to ensure that you didn't worry about him more than you already do." Sarutobi's eyebrow quirked once more, he was doing that a lot this afternoon for some reason, all in regards to the young container.

She continued before he could ask any questions though, her voice tinged with the same sadness that now encompassed her face.

"The fine worries me because unlike what you think, Naruto has no money to pay it off with. The villagers overcharge him for absolutely everything. He has to pay 5 times as much money for his gas and electricity as he should, his water is usually poisoned and overcharged, so he has to buy purifiers just to have a drink. As you know they are not cheap, but if he doesn't he will be ill for days if he is lucky. The food they sell him has gone off or is similarly poisoned, and given your own laws regarding interfering with the container we cannot interfere unless one of them actually attacks him."

"Why do you think every time you see him he insists on Ichikaru's ramen? As much as he loves ramen, it's more so that you don't have to see what he normally has to eat the rest of the time." She paused for breath, and Sarutobi's heart sank at the thought that there was more to come that he didn't know about.

"The only thing that was going to brighten things up for him was that once he became a ninja, he would earn more money off missions, and therefore be able to live without having to get money off you or I to survive. And now that you have told him he has to do the first three months of his ninja career for free, whilst having to continue to pay the ridiculous prices he does, assuming he passes his Jounin sensei's test of course. You wonder why I think he may be a flight risk?" Yugao merely raised a single eyebrow before continuing.

"Even if he does stay he would have to live in the training grounds, as the only way for him to pay that 4000 ryo in the time period would be to sell the apartment building, as much as that would pain him to do so. It's not like the banks would give a newly minted genin with this kind of mark to his name a loan, even if he was just a normal kid. That's three months of living wild, with no social life due to lack of money, not that he would have much of one with the village attitude towards him, and only his team to support him? Unless you have put him with Kurenai-chan and two of the graduates that actually get along with him, him resigning and leaving is a forgone conclusion." Sarutobi gulped, looking at the top piece of paper he had been looking over before tomorrow's graduation, the team selections.

What he had thought was a harsh but fair punishment, to curb Naruto's pranking instincts, had turned out to be one of the worst things he could have done to the poor boy. Even worse Naruto seemed to have taken the crippling blow to his life and career far too easily, with a resigned acceptance that came with true despair, something that only made Sarutobi feel even worse about what he had just done.

He stood, preparing himself to go and try to find the boy and remand the punishment, anything before the boy left the village. Because until he passed the Jonin test tomorrow, regardless of what Sarutobi had said, Naruto was still a civilian in the eyes of the law. A civilian with a kinjutsu and a bijuu at his disposal, but a civilian nevertheless. So if Naruto did leave, there was nothing Sarutobi or anyone else in the village could do to bring him back, by force or otherwise.

If they did so, they would risk the wrath of the fire lord, who was a just defendant of civilians in Hi no Kuni, whether he was defending them against his samurai or Sarutobi's ninja. He was stopped by Yugao's sob, an action he never would have predicted possible from the woman, even as she spoke her final piece.

"Going after him now won't help; if you do all that will reveal is that I have broken his wish and his trust in me, that will just make it even worse, as then he will not trust any of us. And you can't repeal the punishment; you stamped it with your seal straight after you got his acceptance and gave him the official copy, so it is legal and binding even to you." Sarutobi sank back down, eyes shifting to confirm what his mind already knew, that Yugao was correct and he had stamped the paper with his seal.

This meant that the moment Naruto became a full genin, the start of his punishment would begin, he would have three months to pay the fine and to work off the debt. And another weight settled on Sarutobi's already burdened shoulders as he finally came to terms with what he had just done, to a boy who had hidden the worst of his life from him, in an attempt to make an old shinobi's life less worrisome.

Though he knew there was nothing more he could do without making the situation worse for both himself and the boy, and could only hope that the boy would still turn up to the graduation class as he was meant to at 2 pm the next day.