"Ahem..."
Hiruzen cough lightly to gain Naruto's attention,"Let's go and meet your new team." While giving a push to Naruto to move forward.
The moment those three see Hiruzen coming towards them they quickly bow respectfully to him.
"Morning, Hokage-sama" said all three in union.
Hiruzen nodded and point his index finger towards Naruto,"He is the new member of your Team, Kaito-san."
Kaito, Team's Jonin sensei, looked over at him, then held up a hand. "So, the Hokage-sama says your name's Naruto, right? I'm Kaito Sarutobi, your team's Jonin instructor." Then he pointed towards the other two.
"Brown-haired kid is Takeshi Inazuma, and that ninja girl next to him is Rin Amari. They're both 14-year-old Genins, just starting out like for 1 and half years or little more."
Upon listening kaiji, Naruto brow furrowed,'Jonin is from Sarutobi Clan, look like this old man making sure to keep me under ties.'
Then he looks towards his teammates, Takeshi also was looking at Naruto and in friendly tone said,"Hi, name's Takeshi Inazuma, I heard you become Genin at this young age already."
Rin amari, standing besides him, comes forward and put her hand on Naruto's hair,"Sensei, are you sure he is a Genin, he looks too cute for a graduated Genin." She said, ruffling his hair.
Naruto wasn't bothered with his hair being ruffled, they were already a little messed up. He was staring at his teammates sharply, like scrutinizing them throughly.
He lightly slam her hand away and asked,"Why did your team not have a third member?"
Rin shortly glared at him before answering him, "Actually, we have but last week he ask for changing T—"
"Leaving not changing & not last week!", Takeshi interrupt Rin and said, "Sensei tell that Ryota ask for leaving team even before, it's just that, his wish come true last week." His tone bit of annoyed.
Kaito give wry smile, "Don't be like that, he was your teammate for a long time right, he must have his reasons." He try to calm Takeshi's anger for his last teammate.
"Kaito-sensei right, you shouldn't be like that, he probably has his reasons" Rin also agreeing with kaito.
Naruto thought with a snarky inner voice. 'Last week, remember? That's when I straight-up told that old geezer to either give me a team or let me handle missions solo, outside the village and all. But nah, looks like he went and specifically cooked up this whole arrangement just for me.'
Naruto was totally convinced Hiruzen made this Ryota person ditch the team, probably using that whole 'Will of Fire' speech or maybe just straight-up bribing him. I mean, they're both just 14, so they've been a team for like, at least two years, right?
'Come on, nobody sane just up and leaves the team. That old fart,' Naruto thought, shooting a look at Hiruzen.
Hiruzen smiles at him shamelessly, not knowing what going in Naruto's mind. Naruto also smile back while cursing at him in his mind.
"Ahem..."
Then after everyone said their hellos, introduced themselves, Hiruzen cleared his throat to get their attention. Everyone shut up and looked at him respectfully, well, except for Naruto, of course.
"As I tell you, Naruto has done enough D-rank missions and is ready for C-rank mission." He said. "So, I am giving your team a C-rank mission that you can choose to do it either today or tomorrow."
After he said that, he looked over at them, trying to catch their reactions, especially Naruto's since he needs about him the most. The others, who've already done a few C-rank missions and even a B-rank one, didn't really show much of anything.
But Naruto get excited, 'Finally.' he thought. "Then let's go to mission today!" He shout excitingly.
Rin gently pokes his cheeks, "Looks like our Naruto-chan is very excited for his first C-rank mission, huh!" She said in teasingly.
"Haha, don't worry Naruto, your big brother and sister, protect you if anything dangerous happened." Takeshi also gets in on the fun.
Hiruzen smiles at their interactions, and give Kaito signal with his gaze only 'Take care of him'. Kaito also nodded in understanding.
Hiruzen then headed back to his office. As he did, Kaito clapped and suggested, "Tomorrow for the mission, yeah? How about a barbecue today to celebrate getting a new teammate for you?"
Rin and Takeshi's eyes totally lit up when they heard "barbecue." Naruto, even though he really wanted to get going on the mission ASAP, was definitely not gonna turn down free food.
"Alright, so it's settled then! We're hitting up the Akimichi clan's barbecue place for dinner," Kaito Sarutobi said, checking out his students' happy faces.
——
Later that evening, the team was chilling at a restaurant, grubbing on barbecue. Rin and Kaito were manning the grill, flipping stuff, while Naruto and Takeshi, who were hopeless at cooking, were just shoveling meat down like they hadn't eaten in ages.
"Man," Takeshi said, "this stuff is seriously good!"
Naruto, sitting right next to him with his mouth totally full of meat, just kinda mumbled, "Akimichi clan's Barbecue is just awesome."
Inside his head, though, he was totally laying into Hiruzen. The old man hadn't even given him his parent's place, just some crummy little apartment. But Naruto was somewhat okay with it.
'However, that geezer never gave me enough cash to actually eat properly. All I ever had was instant noodles and Ichiraku's ramen.'
After eating, everyone headed to their own places. Naruto was lost in thought as he walked towards his apartment. 'Was my parents' place empty? I remember in Boruto, Naruto became Hokage.'
'Even though I didn't watch much Boruto in my past life, it's pretty clear that the place Naruto started living after marrying Hinata was Minato and Kushina's house.'
He stopped in his tracks, glanced up at the moon, and thought,'When I first got into anime, I totally pictured Hiruzen as just your typical old grandpa when I started watching Naruto anime. But turns out, things weren't as simple as they seemed in the show either.'
If Hiruzen was really like how they showed him during the anime, then it boils down to one thing: he was just a huge dummy who had no clue what his friend Danzo was up to.
Like, with Sakumo's death and all those other messed-up things Danzo did, weakening Konoha while saying it was 'For Konoha'
If that's really the case, that Hiruzen genuinely didn't know, then what was he even doing as Hokage? He should've just handed over the job to Jiraiya, or even forced it on him.
And Jiraiya probably would've found Tsunade ages ago in response. But in the end, it was likely all about his political power, and he always knew what Danzo was doing.
Without Orochimaru's scheme for the Konoha Crush, which led to Hiruzen's demise, Hiruzen would have likely remained alive, potentially resulting in a Sarutobi clan member becoming the Godaime Hokage instead of Tsunade.
Indeed, his clan possessed a greater number of Jonin or elite Jonin-level shinobi within the village compared to other clans.
This was despite the fact that many Sarutobi members did not possess strength exceeding that of a Chunin, yet they had been promoted to the rank of Jonin by Hiruzen's decree.
He only relinquished his position as Hokage following the Third Great Ninja War due to Danzo's censure of his leadership, which contributed to wartime losses.
Danzo also orchestrated public sentiment against Hiruzen through the dissemination of rumors, anticipating his own ascension to the Hokage position after Hiruzen's removal.
Consequently, Hiruzen let Minato to assume the position of the Fourth Hokage, considering his civilian background, his heroic status from the war, his connection as his student's student and he is easy to control. With real political power still remains in Hiruzen's hand.
This contrasted with the case of his former student, Orochimaru, who was also the contender of Yondaime Hokage's position; otherwise, it is conceivable that Hiruzen would have eventually designated his eldest son as the Yondaime Hokage, had his son not dead at that time.
"Haa..."
He let out a soft sigh, shaking his head a little. 'No use dwelling on it,' he figured. 'Tomorrow I'm out of here, leaving a shadow clone to cover for me.'
——
Next day, Training Ground 4.
Kaito Sarutobi was leaning against a tree. Rin Amari and Takeshi Inazuma were there too.
Naruto strolled up and greeted them, "Hey, Sensei, and you two."
Rin chirped playfully, giving his cheek a little poke, "What's with the formal greeting? Call me big sis!"
Kaito and Takeshi chuckled softly. Then Kaito said, "Alright everyone, you got your gear and weapons ready?"
They all nodded.
Then he explained, "The mission is C-rank and isn't too tough, seeing as it's Naruto's first. We just need to take care of some bandits up north in the Land of Fire. It shouldn't take more than four or five days."
"Sweet! Let's get this show on the road!" Naruto exclaimed, and with that, they all headed towards the village gates to start the mission.
Naruto smirked to himself, 'Mission, Outside Konoha. Next time I come back to this place, it'll be when I've got Kage-level chakra. Then, I will release Kurama in between Village.'
Oblivious to Naruto's inner thoughts, Kaito and the others set off towards their mission.