Sakura frowned, pressing on her right shoulder and grimacing as she felt the hard knot of muscle underneath.

This was supposed to be her break time (or, well, as close as she got nowadays; she was working on the tailed-beast avatars instead of any of her official work), but Hotaru had just had to come in and ruin things.

"How far outside of the budget?"

"Ten percent," Hotaru said. "The Budget Bureau says it's ramping up, too; just about every bureau is getting more and more distant from their estimations."

"The estimations were never really that accurate, were they?"

"I mean, they weren't accurate before the reforms, but after that we had been doing pretty well."

Had been.

Weren't, anymore.

(That had been a nice part of Research being split across all Bureaus; while she had a separate budget to add to the individual offices as she wished, she had not had nearly the difficulty others did in trying to estimate their weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly costs, because she just had so many less costs allocated under her and Hotaru to begin with.)

"Well, shit," Sakura said.

"Yeah. They're reporting on it next week. The Hokage is apparently girding up some of our weak points—" and something about that sounded like he didn't believe it, like he wanted to know where their fearless leader actually was— "and it's not as if another week is going to do more damage."

"True enough. And so they told you?"

"They told me because of you, and your reputation for doing the impossible," Hotaru said.

"Look, I've added several revenue-building—"

"That's not it. I mean, it's definitely necessary, but not what they want. They want to be able to estimate future expenses with greater accuracy."

"I'm not an oracle, you know."

But how true was that, really?

Once, Sakura had thought she knew a lot. Or, at least, could know a lot.

And then—

She was almost through with Arden's memories. There were many, a great many, but it had become obvious: she didn't know everything. She was limited to the narrative, limited by her own disinterest. Limited by what disappeared in Sakura's infancy, before she knew how to secure the information to her mind. Also it all happening some untold number of years into the future.

And now she was stuck with her reality.

There were still glimmers of the world-that-Arden-remembered that could be useful, but in this world Black Zetsu had been weakened (probably), and there was no sign of any Uchiha controlling it (probably). The Ame siblings also seemed… not as homicidal. Yet, at least. Tsunade was also back, through no act of Sakura's, and the Daimyo had a massive gambling problem… which might also have been true in the other version of her reality, just not considered important.

So many changes.

So many things Sakura did and did not have control over.

Minute-versus-minute, Arden's memories of her own world tended, on the whole, to be a lot more useful, but they also contributed to this problem, to these expectations.

Sakura understood why, understood the urge to look for simpler solutions even when none existed, but—

What was she supposed to do about it?

(She felt, so often, like she was circling. Like she was just barely treading water, completely unable to swim or dive or glide in the ways truly necessary to keep the worst possibilities from coming to pass.)

"I'm just the messenger," Hotaru said. "Now that we've covered that, I have the quarterly reports back on our researchers. Based on them I think we're going to have to fire some of the low performers; a few of them haven't put their name to anything in over a year."

And from the pot into the fire.

"I hate having these conversations," Sakura said, but even as she did, she leaned forward, grabbing the proffered seal.

Her Uchiha counterpart took a seat across from her (holding strong in his refusal to get his own office) and unsealed his copy of the Utilities Department report to start.

"They have to be had. Utilities is… utilities."

"They are really spending a lot of time investigating pipes, aren't they?"

"Turn to page six; they've apparently just completed a review of every single pipe material Fire currently has to offer. And, over-achievers that they are, they even included possible combat uses."

"Must've made you happy."

Hotaru smirked. "What can I say? I like weapons."

Sakura skimmed, but nothing seemed surprising; good work done by people who had specialized more or less when the village was founded.

"How about the Services Department?"

The Services Research Office was always interesting, if only because the department covered a wide range of services: groundskeeping, fire prevention, childcare, law enforcement, transportation and postal all fell under the wide departmental umbrella.

Hotaru and she both unsealed that report, flipping through it quickly. As usual, the majority of research regarded law enforcement. Sakura was a bit heavily involved, there—she had enough memories of the effects of bad policing (in both her world and Arden's) to be personally invested. Their current focus was a sort of temporary-sleep seal, which was notoriously hard to make but would be very effective in safe detainment if they could figure out how to get it to work.

Interestingly, there was also quite a bit of notes about postal research, primarily the idea of standardizing postal delivery across the country using the train system.

"They are the fastest growing of the offices," Hotaru commented. "Mostly part-timers already involved in the department, especially in the military pol—Law Enforcement Bureau. Is Uchiha Kako still struggling to lead?" because that had been the primary concern when they'd assigned her to lead the office, and she'd certainly had a lot of hiccoughs at the start.

"Not so much, now," Sakura assured. "I've been able to back off from them quite a bit. I think that whenever someone new is onboarded some of the veterans still have to explain how to talk to Kako, but at least everyone agrees that she has the best broad knowledgebase to lead the Services Office."

"Small mercies," Hotaru said. He held up another scroll—for the Commerce Research Office—and Sakura grabbed her copy. Inspections and regulations, product security, vendors, and resource distribution all fell under Commerce, and their office had been one of the first to begin running smoothly with minimal intervention from either of them.

It didn't take long to note this was the first office her Co-Director had concerns about. "It's Mitokado Hana that you're worried about, isn't it?" Sakura asked.

"Hn. Purportedly focused on resource distribution, but hasn't submitted a single thing, or contributed to any of her coworker's projects in any significant way."

"She is certainly doing work," Sakura noted, "but… everything she does could be done by a genin. She's quicker with organizing data…"

"If she can't come up with anything, then she can't come up with anything, but Konoha doesn't want to incur more debt and we're paying her special jounin wages to do genin- and occasionally chunin-level work."

"My first thought is to see if she'd accept a pay cut."

Hotaru nodded. "I'll talk to her first about whether she is struggling with any personal issues, but if she does not have a temporary excuse then we'll have to demote her."

"That wasn't what I meant," Sakura said. "She has the experience necessary for her title, but she isn't currently meeting the expected output. My suggestion was a—possibly temporary—pay cut, while keeping the job title to minimize the social damage. We could even see about her doing more of the training; that does not require fresh ideas, but would allow her to truly earn what we're paying."

"…not a bad idea," Hotaru admitted. The two of them set aside Commerce to come back to later—they'd need to talk to Hana personally before making any decisions.

"Finance next?"

"Sure."

Finance covered taxes, banking, and budgeting, and technically had one of the smallest research offices—but that was mostly because so many people in the Finance Department worked primarily for one of the Bureaus and only occasionally dropped in on the Research Office to dump piles of seals containing their notes on how they improved their work.

It was, therefore, very hard to measure.

"Really, on paper, they're just doing additional work for free."

"The whole reason we want people to officially work parttime for their Research Office is to allow for additional oversight."

"I mean, they're definitely open about their notes?"

Hotaru frowned at Sakura. Clearly that wasn't enough for him, but they'd had this discussion before and gotten nowhere. "Everyone officially working for the Office is doing a good job."

"I agree."

They turned to the Diplomacy Research Office.

All the shinobi who focused on propaganda were part-timers, but their research was kind-of disturbing; they were really excelling in exploring how to manipulate minds. Very creepy, but very good work. No researcher was specifically focused on international relations or daimyo relations, but neither bureau seemed to be struggling, so hopefully they could do without for a bit longer.

It was the last two bureaus that were the most intertwined with the Research Office: the Electoral Bureau and the Intelligence Bureau.

"What has the Electoral Bureau in a tizzy?" Sakura asked. "They've written almost nothing down."

"They think some groups—specifically a Water family in Uzu—are trying to pay people off to vote certain ways. I'm sure they'll figure it out, but they are currently worried about leaks within the department."

"Which, of course, then affects intelligence."

"Exactly. And intelligence is already so busy with those missing-nin and the Kumo-nin we captured."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. Buying off votes—and faking votes entirely—was definitely something that had happened in Arden's world, but she didn't think Arden knew how they fixed it. "Should you or I step in?"

"Probably. Or someone, at least. I think they need an outsider. They're so sure of the leak, they are side-eying everybody else in the department, but the Yamanaka mind-walkers are so busy they haven't actually asked for a consult."

"Unsurprising; there are a lot of Yamanaka in the Diplomacy Department."

"You haven't happened to develop the ability to mind-walk overnight?"

"How's your late-onset sharingan going?"

Hotaru smirked.

"One more thing:" Sakura said, "I'm adding a budget for my nephew to Intelligence."

"I thought he was under the Health Department?"

"Yes, because his seals are generally body seals. But his current project—"

"The truth seal? Ah, I see."

"Yes. Intelligence, and the Diplomacy Department in general, have agreed to fund most of his research. The Yamanaka are also contributing directly."

"Messy," Hotaru said, "but necessary. I do hope he succeeds."

"Regardless, the funding is dispersed enough that it won't kill our central budget. I have assigned a couple genin to help him, and some of the high-level sealers too, but they'll be able to continue with their typical work most of the time."

"Acceptable."

Sakura resealed the Diplomacy papers. "I'll have Minato send one of his clones or something soon. Having him there might calm nerves, and he needs to be aware of the concern anyway."

Hotaru inclined his head. "At the very least it will remind them that they don't need to be so insular."

"Justice next?"

Hotaru nodded. The two of them flipped through the notes quickly; there were some notes about a lack of consistency across judges, but the Research Office only had three part-timers and most were focused on reducing recidivism.

"No problems?" Sakura confirmed. She was the one that focused on Justice usually, but Hotaru liked to check each Research Office personally. Him even being in the room tended to make everyone sit up just a bit straighter.

"Not that I've noticed."

"Good, good."

They moved on to the Infrastructure Research Office. "No troubles here, except for the lack of progress in the sinking city problem. Konoha is still expanding appropriately so we have a few years anyway."

"Agreed. Let's review the Education Research Office next," Hotaru said. He unsealed the suggested review, watched as Sakura did the same. He didn't open it, though, which was a bad sign; clearly there was something in there he already knew. Which was… not great, considering Education was usually his sphere (Sakura having been deemed 'biased', because of her Head's own educational reform efforts), and he hadn't previously mentioned the issue.

Most of the report was unremarkable. Everything was proceeding as it should, and a lot of employees that worked in the various bureaus did their best to contribute to the Research Office too.

It wasn't until she got to the full-time researchers that she noticed it.

"I did not know that Shimura Ema was working in Research, again."

"A problem of us no longer being the hiring authority to any but the entry-level researchers. And the sealers, of course."

"I more think, in this case, it is a problem of a lack of communication between the Research Directors."

Hotaru frowned, then inclined his head. "I was aware that the Shimura… used her, to attempt to get to you. As you were unlikely to come into contact with her, I decided to not inform you until now."

"Is that what I was supposed to have noticed?"

"In part; please flip to… page fifty-two, I believe."

Sakura flipped.

"Oh. Fun."

That was… a lot of independent research submissions. Quite a few from the Yamanaka, of course, and some supplemental notes from the Nara; a surprising amount from the Uchiha; and then a list of submissions by the Shimura.

"What could possibly merit that many submissions?"

"In truth, while each are incredibly wordy, they rarely contain much of substance. I believe it is an attempt to make us busier."

"Why education?"

Hotaru didn't dignify that with an answer; the deterioration of relations between the Yamanaka and the Shimura had an obvious cause, after all.

"Is it working?"

"Going through each submission has certainly affected the Education Research Office's work," Hotaru admitted. "And given the success, I believe we should expect the Shimura to expand the practice in the next quarter."

"At least it costs them time, too," Sakura said. Then, "How many of the submissions are blatantly frivolous?"

"I'd say around thirty percent."

"Alright. We'll send out a notice to every Research Office: any frivolous submissions are to be forwarded to us. If we agree, the writer is banned from submitting anything to the Research Office unless two current Researchers vouch for them. Or some other limiting mechanism."

"I like the concept," Hotaru agreed. "Additionally, perhaps to submit to a specific Research Office you have to pass a relevant test. I know the Testing Bureau is putting together basic information tests across a wide range of subjects; we can consult with each Research Office to determine which are most related to their work."

"I like it. Anybody can take the test, anyway, so it just requires a bit of additional time and effort. And a passing score, of course."

"Of course."

"Shimura Ema is fine, though?"

"Oh, yes. Certainly still ceding to her husband's clan if and when possible, but quite meticulous in data collection and apparently a favored mentor to the genin."

Sakura sighed. "Well, as long as you're keeping an eye on her."

"Indeed. Health?"

"Sure."

It was immediately apparent that the Health Research Office was bloated, but Sakura had known that for some time, had discussed with Hotaru the odd complacency within the office and, separately, Taro's concerns about money theft in the department proper.

"You think they're related?" Hotaru had asked her, weeks ago.

"I hope not," she'd replied.

"I'm afraid you may be correct," Hotaru said now, pointing to three names in particular. "Multiple extreme underperformers who are regularly spending money on research projects that never go anywhere. And two of them have previous financial experience, and have made a point to volunteer to go through Hospital budgeting records whenever necessary."

"And then Taro left the Office," Sakura continued, "and ended up taking on Hospital budgeting, and…"

"And the mysterious funding leak decreases."

"And with Minato's administrative overhaul…"

"The leak decreases."

"And as Taro rises through the ranks, knows enough about Research to ask uncomfortable questions…"

"The leak decreases."

Both Research Department Directors looked at each other.

"This isn't just laziness," Sakura said. "Or incompetence."

"No, probably not."

"Have you informed T&I?"

"Intelligence, they're called now."

"Mhm. Have you informed them?"

"Not yet," Hotaru admitted. "I wanted to double check with you. We have no evidence that it's these three specifically, after all, and the Yamanaka mindwalkers really don't have the capacity to check everybody in the Health Department."

"No, but these three are a good place to start," Sakura said. "We'll trust Intelligence to do their job, just as we do ours."

"I hope it's not as bad as it looks," Hotaru said. He was staring at the paper, now, at Taro's meticulous accounting of the missing funds and the Research Office's meticulous accounting of the odd spending patterns of some of its members.

"We rarely get what we want."

"It's just…"

Sakura agreed, didn't know what to do. "I'll… find some people. We'll have a conversation with Taro, try to figure out how to tackle the problem without kneecapping Konoha at the same time."

"It never rains, does it?" Hotaru said. He sighed, then moved to the next seal.

In minutes they'd finished the last Research reviews, the War Department and their own, but that barely merited notice—compared to Commerce, compared to Education, compared to Health, neither had any complaints about the War Research Office or the Sealing Assembly.

The day still felt like a failure, however, with what they'd already covered.