Chapter 4:

Training was canceled on account of the holiday, so Boruto and his friends were trying to decide what to do. Curious to see what their sensei was up to, they went to his usual hangout and found him hanging out with his friends.

"Guess he doesn't have a date for Valentine's Day," said Boruto. "It would be weird if Big Bro had one, though, you know."

"Glad we ran into him," said Sarada. "I did make him something for Valentine's Day."

"Seriously?"

Sarada scoffed, turning away. "After all he does for us, and putting up with you, I think he deserves a little something, don't you?"

"I thought you were only supposed to give chocolates to boys you liked," said Mitsuki.

"You can give it to teammates, friends and lovers. He's our sensei. And since he can't expect something from you guys, it's up to me."

"Well, yeah. We're boys. Girls are supposed to give chocolate to guys," Boruto told her.

Sarada approached Konohamaru and handed him a plastic bag topped with a ribbon with chocolate dipped cookies inside. He seemed pleased with her gift and Moegi was already eyeing it hungrily. Konohamaru shielded it from her with his arms but she bluntly asked if he was willing to share with his closest friends.

"Ah…"

Boruto turned away from them to look at Mitsuki. "You ok?"

Mitsuki put a hand to his forehead. "I just felt a wave of dizziness hit me."

Boruto leaned closer to check on him. "Are you sick?"

"I don't think so. It came on so suddenly." He staggered for a moment then straightened up. "It's gone. I'm better now."

"You sure?"

Mitsuki looked up at him and nodded. "Yes. I'm alright."

Sarada returned and asked what was next. Boruto pointed across the street at a store advertising a promotion in honor of Valentine's Day.

"I don't know what it is but we should check it out."

"Alright."

Sarada entered the store first, holding the door open for Mitsuki. When he entered, he held it open for Boruto.

SLAM!

"Ow!" Boruto staggered back, holding his nose. The door just collided with his face.

Mitsuki opened the door and reached out to help Boruto inside. "Are you alright?"

"The door just hit me in the face."

"I'm sorry," Mitsuki apologized. "It got away from me. Just slipped right out of my hand."

Boruto pressed his hands to his face, wincing. It felt worse than the door simply hitting him. It slammed right into him. There was force behind it.

Maybe it was just a heavy door. Mitsuki seemed really concerned about him and it wasn't like him to slam the door on him on purpose.

The pain subsided and Boruto carefully entered the store to look around.

Naruto put another paper on the pile, sighing heavily. He smiled.

"I made a significant dent. This is great."

"Seventh!"

"Now what?"

The door flew open and Sai entered the room. "Seventh, there's a problem in the office down the hall. Please hurry."

Naruto and Shikamaru rushed out the door and followed Sai to a different room. The smell of singed wood alerted them to what was on the other side of the door before they opened it.

"Gah!" Naruto yelped, staring at the charred remains on a desk inside. "Those… Those are the papers I filed last night. I stayed up late to do them. What happened?"

"I don't know," said Sai. "I smelled something and came in here and found this."

"They were supposed to be filed and copied," Naruto whined. "I'll have to do them all over again. The whole document."

Shikamaru studied the desk closely. "Strange. These papers are the only ones damaged. Nothing else on this table was burned. Why is it confined to this one area?"

"Someone must have put down a cigarette without thinking and the documents caught on fire," reasoned Sai.

"There's no smoking in this building for that reason."

"Then somebody broke the rules. They're nowhere to be found, so obviously…"

"It's fine. It's fine," Naruto said, trying to keep it together. "I can draw them up again. I did it once. It shouldn't take me any longer to do them again."

"But this will set you back another couple hours," Shikamaru told him. "You're trying to get home early tonight."

"Then I better get started." Naruto hurried back to his office.

Shikamaru pointed at Sai. "Find out who did this and make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Can do."

Chocho looked at the three boxes of chocolate in her bag contemplating who she should give them to. Who would look good fawning over her for a day? She kept an eye out for a cute guy walking around but every time she spotted someone promising, he ended up with a girl on his arm, spoken for.

"This is hard. I want to make sure I like them enough to watch them drool over me. I wonder if Shikadai and Inojin have eaten their chocolates yet?"

She went over all the boys in her grade and their eligibility.

Not Metal. If he got nervous, he would end up breaking anything he was carrying. Having her hand crushed or him dropping plates of food intended for her was not something she wanted to experience. Iwabe wasn't very suitable either, but the idea of him having a big goofy smile on his face as he fell for her was appealing. Denki was a definite no, failing to see his manliness.

Boruto was right in front of her. Maybe she should have given him one when she gave a box to Mitsuki.

"No way," she told herself. "I stand by what I said before. He's not nearly cool enough to be an admirer of mine. I want someone more manly than him. It would just be too weird."

She tried to think outside the box a little.

Older men were more mature and manly. Perhaps finding someone a couple years older than her would be good. Too bad she didn't know anyone like that.

If she gave the chocolate to an adult, she might end up turning them into a pervert which certainly wasn't very appealing to her. Would it have the same effect on an adult? She didn't want to risk testing it just in case.

"So far things aren't going as I thought they would," she said to herself and sighed. "I pictured adoring fans gathered around me. Does it work slowly or something? If it takes time, how much time?"

Was it not what she thought it was? Maybe it wasn't the same kind of love she thought it would be. If she gave it to an adult, they might not look at her in the romantic sense but just baby her. That seemed nice but she still didn't want to risk it.

"Ugh!" She growled, slamming her hands on her knees. "What does it take to get some attention around here? Even Mitsuki was too shy about it. Shikadai and Inojin are the ones who should learn how to treat a lady but they didn't eat it right away. They must have by now. I better go check and see. Maybe I didn't put enough in the chocolate. In that case, I should save these last three and give it to them just to be sure."

She gathered her things and went to search for them.

Naruto found himself backed against a wall when several shinobi came into his office to complain about the chaos happening in the building.

"Someone misplaced the keys to the lab. How are we supposed to get to the samples?"

"Where are those documents? They are overdue."

"Some idiot jammed the door and now no one can use the main entrance."

"Who's responsible for this? These papers are ruined. How am I supposed to do my job with papers like this?"

"There's a mess on the main floor and all the mops went missing."

"That's hardly an issue for the Hokage. Seventh, take a look at this!"

"What about the complaints of the people on the east side? Have you handled those yet?"

"That can wait. What can't wait are the people meeting you in an hour."

"Impossible. I booked that room for a different meeting at the same time."

"According to this, the meeting was rescheduled to today in one hour."

"You double-booked? Seventh, what kind of oversight is this?"

Naruto waved his arms, raising his voice. "Enough! Everyone, calm down! I'll take care of it."

He managed to calm the crowd and shoved them out of his office. He slumped against the closed doors, moaning.

"This is insane," he said to Shikamaru. "How can so many things go wrong at once?"

"It's almost like someone's out to get you. Are you sure Boruto wouldn't..?"

"I doubt it. I'm trying to get home early today. Why would he sabotage that? It's what he wants. Aside from that, these are matters he wouldn't have knowledge of. Meetings and papers. How could he screw that up?"

"True."

Someone knocked on the door. "Seventh, there's still the matter of the graffiti on…"

"I don't care!" Naruto bellowed through the door. "There are more important things than the monument right now."

Had Naruto given too many people the day off? No, it wouldn't result in all this. This was deliberate.

"Alright," Naruto said taking a deep breath. "I can do this."

Shikamaru watched as four clones appeared in the office. Naruto gave each of them a task, instructing them to handle one thing at a time so everything would get back on schedule.

"Naruto, even at the rate you're going, you…"

"I know I'm spreading myself thin, but I've got to take care of this. Too many people are counting on me." Naruto opened the door and his clones scattered. "I only made four clones. They should last longer than they would if I made an army. While they're doing those things, I'll handle the rest. And so I don't hear about it anymore, could you take care of the graffiti?"

"Yeah, alright."

"Thanks, Shikamaru." Naruto hurried out of the office.

Even with his clones, Naruto was bombarded with people and questions while he zoomed around the building, taking care of as many things as he could.

"The documents on the maintenance of the footbridge near the water?"

"On my desk and ready for pickup."

"The east side is still waiting on your approval for construction."

"I drew up the document a second time and I have it right here. Take it."

"Waiting on the approval on the festivities for next month."

"I've approved of the shipment and have the paperwork right here for it. The rest is pending until later today but I do have the paperwork on the banners and where they will be placed throughout the village."

"Font included?"

"Yes. Along with it I also have confections for distributors and the location for the entertainment."

"And security?"

"I've approved of time off for the day and the list of names and duties of the ones who don't have off are on my desk. Top pile on the left."

"Thank you, Seventh."

"Naruto."

"What is it, Sai?"

"The meeting for the summer festival is happening now."

Naruto stopped walking. "Now? That was scheduled next week."

"Well, the proprietors and vendors are here to discuss location, materials, foods, entertainment and the like with you in the meeting room on the third floor. They want to make sure they all have the proper space so no one's arguing over who can put their stand where."

Naruto sighed. "Alright. I'll head there now."

Shikamaru climbed onto the stone monument to take a look at the graffiti. Everything was drawn in black paint. He sighed and started mapping out where he should start. It would be easier to get someone else to scrub it but it would take a while to round up people who weren't working to do the job. He really didn't want to do it himself but at this point he couldn't tell if finding people who weren't busy to do it would be any easier than cleaning it himself.

"Unbelievable," he muttered and stepped closer.

He stopped.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the graffiti wasn't black paint at all. It was ink.

"Black ink? But who would..?" Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock. "No. There's no way it could be. But… Why would..?"

Naruto entered the meeting room. "There's no one here," Naruto announced.

"They're on their way," said Sai. "It's good that you're early. I'll take care of everything. Don't worry."

Naruto gave Sai a trusting smile. "Alright. Thanks, Sai."

"No problem." Sai closed the door. "No problem at all."

Sai slipped a key into the hole and locked Naruto inside. Twirling the key on his finger, Sai let it build up speed then soar across the hall and into a potted plant.

"Whoops." Sai smirked wickedly, chuckling to himself.

What could be happening?

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