There have been three major changes that have completely redesigned and uplifted the inner workings of the Konoha shinobi system. The oldest was the implementation of a genuine archive underneath the Hokage tower that stored, protected, and hid the records of the village. The second was the paperwork jutsu that revolutionized said archive. The third and most recent, was Umino Iruka.
Umino Iruka had been a pre-genin when he was first introduced to the archives. The Hokage had thought that if Iruka had something to put his efforts into, namely tedious filing, that the boy wouldn’t have time to continue his pranking war on the village. Within three hours of being around all that dust and paper and knowledge, Iruka fell in love with it all. Combined with that sudden love and the natural complex understanding of seals, Iruka then changed everything.
Three days later he realized the older scrolls in the archives were being damaged by the slight moisture of the underground setting. So Iruka created a seal that when pressed into the outside of a scroll prevented any weather or minimal damage. Iruka saved thousands of scrolls in a matter of a day.
Three months into his work with the administrative nin, Iruka realized that the paperwork jutsu had a major flaw, in that it had no anchors. The jutsu could put files together in moments, shuffle through a file to find mentions of a name, it could even destroy or replicate an entire file, but it couldn’t specify one file from all the others. Iruka spent the next month designing numerical seals that could be specifically called to by the paperwork jutsu. Meaning that a nin could pull any file to themself from anywhere in the Hokage tower if only the serial number was known. Iruka got two proposals of marriage that day even though he was only twelve. He also got an approving nod from the Hokage and was paid a small fortune for his ingenuity and ‘consulting’ work.
Two years into his work at the tower and Iruka was a genin, an official advisor to the Hokage, and on his way to being a master of fuinjutsu. He was given access to almost the entire archive as well as gifted many rare books and scrolls about seals. He had tea with the Hokage every Tuesday and had created and implemented several securities into the tower that had the ANBU leader come and thank him in person.
Four years after his introduction to the archives and Iruka took the chunin exams with every single person at the tower who’d ever worked with him cheering him on. He blew the exam away with his ability to create barriers and seals in moments as well as maintain up to three at once. The one v one fight at the end was over before it had started.
Iruka had changed things for the better from the background for most of his formative years. Once he was promoted to chunin he was thrust into mission desk shifts where Iruka read so many terrible mission reports that he had nightmares about them. It was shortly after that that Iruka found a new jutsu that wasn’t a jutsu at all, but rather a spine of steel and a righteous anger that let him stare jounin and ANBU in the eyes and demand better.
Hatake Kakashi was the first to see his true ire on a most fateful day where Iruka became known to more than the Hokage’s staff and that the infamous copy nin fell a little in love.
Kakashi hadn’t been paying much attention to the chunin behind the desk when he handed over his mission report. He just kept his hand reached out for the other to put the mission receipt in so Kakashi could collect his pay later from the treasury department. After several moments of waiting Kakashi finally turned to find what the hold up was and found Iruka nearly shaking in his seat as the boy glared at the report in his hands.
“This is unacceptable, shinobi-san,” Iruka said, his voice literally trembling with the anger that had been slowly overtaking his sensibilities. The jounin were the worst of the bunch when it came to mission reports and he thought it was disrespectful and irresponsible. Iruka was raised with a burning admiration for the archives and paperwork and accurate data. With the reports he’d been getting it was a wonder they had any idea who wanted the village dead and who were allies. It was a problem.
“What?” Kakashi asked, he wasn’t just confused but also baffled, befuddled, bewildered, addled.
“You didn’t fill in half of the required sections of this mission report and it’s also covered in mud, there’s literally a dog print over the notes section.” Iruka waved the scroll around while he said it and nearly hit himself in the side of the head with the bottom of it.
The mission room by that point had gone silent. All eyes on Iruka and the jounin slouched in front of him. Iruka was too angry to notice or perhaps too righteous to care. “It’s a wonder that we haven’t accidentally started a war with another village when all that’s given to us by our elite soldiers is chicken scratch and a complete disregard for the accuracy of events!”
Kakashi shuffled his feet back and forth in a rare display of uncertainty and the desire to run away. “It’s just paperwork,” he said at long last.
Iruka lurched to his feet and exclaimed, “You know what else is paperwork?! Your pay. Your lease. Your mission statistics. Hell, even the bingo book is paperwork. The Hokage’s position is paperwork, the council that runs this village is paperwork, the memorial stone that immortalizes our fallen families is paperwork.”
Kakashi, and several others present, took an actual step back from the irate chunin. “I don’t know if you’re just disrespectfully lazy or genuinely an idiot!” Iruka threw the mission report at Kakashi and stated calmly, “Redo it. I won’t accept it as it is and you won’t receive a receipt of completion for the mission until you do.”
Kakashi, who had caught the scroll in astonishment, bristled at the insults. “Do you know who I am?” he asked.
Iruka scanned the body in front of him and shrugged his shoulders dismissively as he answered, “Of course. You’re the infamous copy nin, Hatake Kakashi.”
“I could end you,” Kakashi threatened, the mission report being crumpled in his hand as the irritation built.
“First, I wouldn’t make it easy,” Iruka countered with no visible concern, “Two, it’s very illegal as I’m sure someone of your countenance would know, and three, it still wouldn’t get you of this paperwork!” Iruka brought a hand up to rub at the scar that ran across his face and gave a wry smirk that was half a grimace and half a grin. “If you have to use the sharingan to manage a half respectable product then do it! I don’t care how it’s done! If you need help because you’ve forgotten everything you’d learned in the academy, then I’m open to that too.”
Kakashi just blinked, his visible one eye making it look more like a wink, and raised the scroll to throw it back into Iruka’s face and stalk out.
Iruka held up a hand and added, “And now that you’ve destroyed said mission report, I’m really going to need a new one.”
Kakashi looked at the scroll in his hand and saw that he had in fact nearly broken the scroll in half with the way he was clutching it and the paper was torn nearly to pieces. Kakashi looked back at Iruka, who was still exhibiting no emotions beyond anger and an unusual calmness, and snorted. It was supposed to be a derisive scoff but instead of the anger escaping his body a noise of amusement slid past. And then Kakashi nodded his head to the chunin and exited the room.
He returned the next day with a still dismal report but improvements were obvious. Iruka pointed out every flaw in it but then accepted it as done on the condition that Kakashi keep improving.
Kakashi was the first of the elite soldiers to be targeted by Iruka but he certainly wasn’t the last and many of the others weren’t so accepting. Some physically attempted to intimidate the chunin but Iruka either didn’t buy it or neatly avoided any attacks. Some mocked and ridiculed him to make him stop but Iruka would just flush red in anger and give back as good as he got, only Iruka almost always had more information to lob back at them. Some tried to bribe him but Iruka would just take the bribe and then threaten to report them for offering it.
The smart ones reported Iruka’s behavior to the Hokage but those meetings were generally short and to the point. Iruka was never the loser. The mission reports gave an exponential increase in accuracy and completion and the administrative-nin kept breaking into tears in the archives, so thankful for the change that allowed them to spend a fraction of their time than before deciphering the reports and filing them properly.
When Iruka became an academy teacher two things happened. One, the next generations began to be both far more adept at chakra control and temperament, but also had a healthy respect for paperwork. Two, Iruka’s mission desk shifts were cut in half but the other chunin behind the desk had followed his example. Any shinobi that stepped out of line was dealt with by the administrative-nin, the Hokage, or just Iruka himself.
A new status quo had been set and the shinobi either bent to it or… well, they bent to it. Iruka made a lot of enemies as well as a lot of friends. Kakashi was still terrible at mission reports but he was trying, Asuma had become protective of the sensei due to their mutual connection to the Hokage, and Anko and Genma watched Iruka rant at elite soldiers with glee and respect. Gai, whose reports were always splendid and neat, would often hold up the line to talk to Iruka about chakra control techniques, Kurenai met with Iruka every Thursday night so he could teach her about genjutsu amplifying seals, and many of the others had a healthy respect beaten into them by Iruka.
Then the Hokage died and Iruka mourned. Then everything changed, but this time in the worst way.
An interim Hokage was elected to hold the office while they debated and voted on the Fifth. The interim position only lasted eight weeks, but the shinobi were suddenly shown a different world than the one they had become accustomed to.
It started the first day of the interim Hokage’s reign. Iruka was berating one jounin for handing in half of a mission report, it had allegedly been whole, not torn and missing the bottom half, on the shinobi’s way here, and helpfully training a new chunin desk worker at the same time. Kakashi, along with some others, were mesmerized by the warring emotions the chunin was swapping back and forth from. Helpful and warm one second to be replaced by bared teeth and angry words the next.
Then the interim Hokage walked in the door, she was short but muscled, she was wrinkled in age but moved as confidently as a shinobi in the prime of their life. She looked angry and she looked disdainful. Her name was Lady Koharu. When she caught Iruka ranting at the jounin, who was already apologizing and grabbing a fresh mission report from the basket that all the desks were now equipped with, she shouted, “Chunin! Respect your authorities!”
Iruka paused and looked over at her with wide eyes. “Interim-Hokage-sama, I’m doing my job,” Iruka replied calmly.
“Is this what Sarutobi allowed?” she scoffed. “No wonder we weren’t prepared for the attack if our shinobi don't understand the ladder of authority.” She stalked up to Iruka on her short strong legs and glared at him. “You will not harass your superiors, chunin.”
“I was--”
“You will respect any jounin’s orders, as is the shinobi way. We follow orders, and you will follow orders to all ranked above you. Is this understood?”
The jounin that had been being reproached by Iruka a moment earlier was trying to pull the fresh mission report out of the bin without notice but froze in fear when Koharu turned on him and ordered, “Put that back!”
He looked frantically between Iruka and the terrifying woman in front of him and couldn’t seem to decide what to do. Iruka eventually cleared his throat and said, “Do as she says, Fushi-sama.” Relieved, the man put the mission report back, missing the way the interim Hokage had turned to glare at Iruka for the comment.
Before Fushi could escape the situation the woman was grabbing his arm and dragging him in front of Iruka once again. She pointed at the chunin and said, “Give your report to the chunin, Fushi.” He once again paused but when Iruka gave him a silent nod of encouragement, he guiltily held it back out. The mission report was unfurled and obviously missing a large section, it looked absolutely pathetic. But Iruka took it, stamped his name on it for approval and threw it over his shoulder to land in the bin of completed reports without looking away from the interim Hokage.
Then he pulled a receipt to him and filled it out for Fushi and handed it over with a smile and a soft, “Thank you for your hard work, shinobi-san.” It felt wrong. Not just to Fushi but to everyone in the room, except for the interim Hokage and a few of the very bitter jounin.
Fushi fled the room as quickly as possible and Iruka looked at the interim Hokage once again. She sniffed disdainfully and said, “Your previous Hokage was too soft, perhaps he lost his edge with old age. I will not be so lenient. I run a shinobi village not a tourist city, and we have rules and expectations. What is your name, chunin?”
“Umino Iruka,” Iruka replied. There was pride in his voice but the rest of his body and facial expression was perfectly blank. For someone who was normally so passionate and outwardly emotional, it was a disturbing sight.
“Umino Iruka, you will learn to respect your superiors or you will return to life before a shinobi. A ninja who does not follow orders is nothing more than a liability. You wouldn’t want to be a liability, would you?”
Iruka gave the woman a respectful nod and replied, “Of course not, my Lady.”
“Then see to it you don’t.” She then turned and glared at the other two chunin on duty, until they lowered their eyes in deference, and then swept out the door.
The room was silent as the dead for a long moment. And another and another. Iruka finally rolled his eyes and motioned for the next in line to come forward. The mission report given to him was mediocre and had one section completely blank. Iruka just mentally sighed, stamped it, threw it over his shoulder with perfect aim, and said pleasantly, “Thank you for your work, shinobi-san.”
The rest of the shift passed with almost no conversation other than Iruka’s calm thank yous. Kakashi was in the corner, with his Icha Icha book clutched in his hand so hard that he was denting the cover, and staring at the door where the interim Hokage had disappeared through.
The next couple of weeks were hell in different ways. Most of the shinobi who turned in mission reports went out of their way to hand in perfect scrolls. Anyone who did got a genuine smile and a wide grin. But others took advantage of Iruka’s position and turned in what was practically trash. They would sneer at Iruka as the chunin calmly stamped it and some would even growl out insults that Iruka never rose to return. Iruka only gave them a twitch of the lips and a calm thanks.
Beyond the scope of the mission room there was civil unrest within the shinobi. Kakashi was threatening to sharingan anyone who took advantage of Iruka and the others at the desk. Gai was always pontificating loudly about equality. Kurenai was giving nightmares to particularly disgusting individuals and Asuma was growling at everyone while huffing and puffing through twice as many cigarettes. Anko and Genma had taken to always being in the mission room when Iruka was on duty and would lash out at anyone who insulted or glared at their friend.
Needless to say, the Hokage’s office was being flooded with complaints from angry shinobi on either side of the argument, and a true deluge of complaints and paperwork from the administrative-nin. Iruka calmly bided his time. He was not scared, he was not cowed, he was merely patient and knowing.
It took longer than he had expected. Four weeks to be precise and Iruka was about ready to put a stop to the charade himself when Kakashi came into the mission room with a straight back and a purposefully bored half-lidded eye.
“Umino Iruka, the interim-Hokage requests your presence,” Kakashi drawled out. Iruka noted the way that eye was fixed avidly on him. He tried to suppress the truly blood thirsty grin that manifested at the words. It was gone within moments but not missed by many in the room. The tension of the last month rose even further.
When Kakashi and Iruka strode side by side to the office they both knew quite well, Kakashi bumped his shoulder into Iruka’s and mumbled a low apology. Iruka just smiled serenely and replied, “Don’t worry, Kashi. I’m not.”
Kakashi looked once again at Iruka and resisted the urge to lift his hitai-ate to reveal his sharingan and read what Iruka was implying. Not only would it not work, it would be a waste of chakra.
ANBU guards opened the door and allowed the two entrance. Kakashi tried to stay out in the hall but interim-Hokage Koharu impatiently waved the copy-nin inside. Iruka bowed to the angry woman and took a calm seat at one of the chairs in front of the large desk. “You wanted to see me, interim-Hokage?” he asked.
“Yes, Umino. I was trying to have a high level mission debrief with Hatake when another one of these came in.” She gestured at a large pile of paperwork, most of it on cheap paper and not bothered to be filed. Iruka refrained from smiling.
“Complaints, Lady?”
“About you!” she accused.
“I’m only doing what you ordered.”
“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?!”
Iruka looked confused for the first time. “Are you implying that I’m doing a bad job on purpose?”
“Yes!”
“Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t have booted me back into the village if I hadn’t done what you said? What you said, if you don’t recall, is that I was to follow any orders given to me by someone of a superior rank. That’s what I’ve done.”
Koharu looked like she was sucking a lemon, but then again she kind of always did. “What you’re doing is petty, Umino.”
Iruka sighed and realized that this conversation was not going in the direction that he’d thought it would. “Have you read the complaints?” Iruka asked.
She glared at the pile, only one of many no doubt, and snapped, “Enough of them.”
“How many of them were from active shinobi and how many were from the people who work in this tower?”
“I don’t think that’s relevant.” She pulled out a thin file from a drawer and clapped it on the desktop with a triumphant smirk. “You’re a chunin, Umino. Your record shows nothing of worth or special acknowledgement. Frankly, you don’t have a place to be saying the things I’ve been reported that you say on a regular basis. Your inexperience makes you naive and disrespectful.”
Iruka looked at the file blankly for a minute and the room was silent as he did so. Then he chuckled. Kakashi moved a step closer to Iruka in reaction and the Koharu just glared. “What is it that’s so funny, Umino?” she demanded.
“All this time I’ve been waiting. You really didn’t read the complaints did you?” Iruka relaxed back into his seat further.
“Waiting for what?” Kakashi asked with interest. Koharu didn’t even bother to glare at him for speaking, she was busy staring at the chunin in front of her.
“Waiting for you to realize that I’m not just a chunin, and even if I was, I’m what makes this damn tower function.” Koharu stiffened and opened her mouth to undoubtedly start screaming, but Iruka cut her off with a point at his file and chuckled, “And that’s not my file.”
She looked down at it in confusion. Upon flipping it open a picture of a smiling but younger Umino Iruka looked up at her. “Yes, it is.”
Iruka sighed and replied, “No, it isn’t. That file is a joke and a cover up, if you’d asked anyone here they would have known that.” He brought his hands together and made a series of seals that Kakashi vaguely recognized as some form of that office jutsu. A few moments after the hand signs stopped, a file came whizzing through the double doors and into Iruka’s hand. Before passing it over to her he paused with a small crease between his eyebrows “What is your clearance level, interim-Hokage?”
“Higher than yours!” she scolded in rage. She reached for it but Iruka brought it back further. “Please, Lady Koharu, what is your clearance level?”
She bristled but allowed a small amount of chakra to collect in her palm and reveal a small symbol rested on the lifeline of said palm. It read SS. Iruka paused as if he was doing mental math and then gave a decisive nod, “This file should be mostly safe for you then.” He finally handed it over. He then looked at Kakashi and raised a single brow. The copy nin showed his own palm with the same set of letters. Iruka nodded and relaxed once again.
This file was as thick as a book and tattered around the edges not from damage but from use. “What is this?” Koharu asked as she flipped through pages. Behind the few pages describing Iruka’s rank and mission summaries were four different enclosed manilla envelopes. With a touch she unlocked the first level chakra clearance seal on the uppermost envelope. It revealed what was obviously a criminal record, though the grey box on the top left denoted it to be juvenile delinquency. “So you’re not just a mouthy brat but you’re also a delinquent?” she asked puzzled.
Iruka just smiled and gestured for her to continue. And she did. Kakashi subtly raised his hitai-ate so he could read the words at a distance and memorize them. It appeared that Iruka had not only been a prankster but had managed to get himself arrested and landed in solitary confinement for two weeks due to breaking through the tower’s defensive wards to sneak into the Hokage’s office where he was caught by the Hokage sat behind the desk. Iruka was ten at the time. Kakashi frowned at the mental picture of a young Iruka behind bars and left to himself for a fortnight. It was cruel, especially for someone as obviously social as Umino was.
“You broke into the tower? You’re a traitor?” she hissed.
“I was a child with a point to prove and no parents to stop me. I was let out with no formal charges.” He gestured at the file once again and said, “Keep going.”
She pulled the next package out and opened the second level clearance chakra seal on it. Kakashi raised a brow at the presence of an A level chakra signature. He glanced at Iruka but found the man just as relaxed as before.
Koharu and Kakashi read over the next package with some difficulty. It was a full reporting of every change Iruka had made to the filing systems to date, which was a very very long list. There were also detailed explanations of the new paperwork jutsu and matching seals, the scroll seals, and the sections that Iruka added to different types of paperwork. It dipped into the different organizational system that Iruka had used the paperwork jutsu he’d created to completely redesign the archives below their feet. It mapped out the way that Iruka had channeled chakra into the archives floor and up into each scroll to make sure no scroll could be removed unless the proper chakra levels were given. Kakashi didn’t understand half of it and by the looks of it neither did the interim-Hokage. “What does this mean?” she finally reluctantly asked.
“It means that there’s no one who knows and understands the inner workings of this tower better than me. The mission reports you had a problem with me correcting were updated by me three years ago. I made it simpler and clearer. It also shows that I know the effect that the miswriting of a mission report can create. If you read the complaints you've been receiving I’m sure you’d find that ¾ of them are from the administrative-nin and how the recent… developments… have undermined years of work. A bunch of the paperwork you’ve done recently, was it about fixing mistakes in the archives?”
Lady Koharu stiffened and didn’t answer but the silence was all telling. “This just shows that you’re not a field ninja but rather a secretary.”
Iruka finally tensed up but it quickly drained out of his body. Kakashi, on the other hand, wanted to lash out at the woman. Iruka just shrugged one shoulder and said, “My abilities are very helpful on very specific missions. They just don’t come up much.” He leaned forward and plucked the fourth package up from underneath the third and put it in his lap. “In fact, you don’t have the clearance to see my mission reports, interim-Hokage.”
She scowled and held out a hand with the superiority that so many of the jounins that hated Iruka embodied. “Whatever you’re trying to hide, Umino, you’ve brought it upon yourself.”
Iruka hid a smile badly and handed it back over. When she went to push her chakra into the clearance seal all she got was a nasty shock to her hand that left her whole arm tingling unpleasantly. Kakashi, with his sharingan open, could see the H-level security chakra built into the seal. Only the Hokage could open such a file. Kakashi’s eyes flicked back to Iruka in shock and awe. He’d always liked the chunin and he’d seen that Iruka was a highly competent ninja, was a genius with children, and could beat up a jounin with two seals and a half hearted barrier, but this was beyond what he’d expected. He himself only had a handful of H-level missions under his belt and it looked like Iruka, judging by the thickness of the packet, had at least twice as many.
The interim-Hokage threw the package aside without a word and ripped the third one open after disabling the clearance seal, an SS clearance. This was the thickest package and the one that Iruka was most proud of. Inside were pages and pages of seal diagrams and blueprints of the tower, the archives, the Hokage office, the mission room, and so on. Kakashi knew seals well enough but he didn’t recognize a single one that Koharu flipped through. It looked like a life’s work, right there in her hands in a file that Kakashi had never known even existed. “What?” the interim-Hokage asked without notice.
“Would you like a more practical show, interim Hokage?” Iruka asked. He still had that calmness around him that was both in and out of character for him.
“A practical?”
“Hands on learning. See it to believe it.” Iruka then leaned forward and that calm skin finally melted away to show a very serious man with anger burning in his eyes. “I’ve helped build this village and this tower. I’m a responsible party for its protection. For example,” Iruka raised a single hand, extending two fingers and making a flicking motion. Kakashi’s skin cooled and his entire body tensed as the warm feeling of a powerful ward sloughed off around them and fell to nothing. Iruka raised his hand again and made the same motion, another layer fell away, this one even more blood cooling than the last. ANBU were flying through the windows and barging in through the doors behind them. Iruka made two more slashing hand movements and Kakashi could barely breath as the security he was so used to suddenly vanished. It felt like he was standing on a deflating balloon in the middle of the ocean in winter. Nothing was solid or stable. Nothing was pushing down on them and the building to make it stronger and warm.
The interim-Hokage was panting in her seat and staring wide eyed at both Iruka and the room around her. The ANBU were shuffling feet and looking around, at a loss for what was happening or what to do about it. Iruka gave a smile that displayed nothing but a dark satisfaction and perhaps a tint of guilt. He waved his other hand lazily in the air and the wards came slamming back into place. Kakashi almost fell over as the wards flowed chakra through him and into the walls and floors. “I’ve layered similar wards into every part of the tower, all of them with a polyseal infrastructure. The archives are different but just as protected. The mission room itself is sealed and warded to prevent true injury to anyone, or if injury happens to contact the hospital immediately.”
Kakashi glanced back at the file that was now spread across the desk haphazardly. One page caught his attention immediately. “It says you were 13 when you were officially titled a security advisor.” Kakashi looked at Iruka and wondered how he’d missed it. They were the same, really. Too smart for their own good, only Iruka was good at protecting people whereas Kakashi was only good at killing them.
Iruka just shrugged. He stood up and waved the ANBU away who responded in both a combination of ingrained respect and confusion. They all disappeared from the office in moments. Iruka gave several hand seals and the messy file came together in a brush of chakra and flurry of papers. The packages resorted themselves and slid into place, each seal snapping into position once again, and the file flew into Iruka’s hands.
“I’m only a chunin, Lady Koharu, it’s true. But I know what I’m doing. Hokage Hiruzen knew that and valued me. He allowed me to take authority when it came to the mission room and supported every action I took. And as a result, the tower has never run smoother. Paperwork is everything, after all. Your time as interim-Hokage will soon be only a mention in the archives and my life’s work will be a file under the name Umino. “ Iruka shrugged once again and turned back to the door. “I’m going to continue what I’ve been doing and I’ll think you’ll be pleased with the results. I can only hope you will warn the Fifth Hokage when they come to not underestimate their shinobi like you have.” Once he reached the doors, he turned and bowed respectfully to the interim-Hokage and then to Kakashi. He exited without any further remarks.
The room was as silent as the mission room was a month back and Kakashi smiled so wide it distorted his mask and made his cheeks hurt. Damn, Iruka. He was proud of his...of Iruka and he’d never been so in love with the chunin before than now.
Lady Koharu just huffed, folded her hands across her chest and said, “What a fucking brat. I like him.”
Kakashi just snorted and couldn’t stop the laugh that followed if he’d tried.
She stood up, grabbed the pile of complaints that were sitting at the corner of her desk and with a quick fire jutsu turned them all to ash. “Alright, at least that’s taken care of. Hatake, report, from the beginning. The Land of Mist feudal lords implied or promised to open the trade route to Fire once again?”