"Kakashi-sensei, you're finally here!" Naruto got up from the Hokage's seat to greet Kakashi.
Kakashi closed the door to the Hokage's office behind him, a bright smile tugging at his lips beneath the mask. "Maa, of course I am. After all, it isn't every day that my cute little student calls for my help."
Naruto groaned. "Please, Kakashi-sensei, I'm a grown man and the Hokage now! You have to stop calling me that!"
"You've only been Hokage for ten days, and you already sound so arrogant." Kakashi laughed as he walked farther into the room. "I barely even had a taste of retirement, and you're already calling me back here. So tell me, what did you mess up?"
"I didn't mess up anything! Don't jinx me, sensei!" Naruto scowled at him for a moment, then pointed at his desk. "I called you here for this."
"Hmm?" Kakashi leaned down to look at what Naruto was pointing at.
It was a statue of-
"Maa, did you want to show me a statue of a really ugly dog?"
"Dog?" Naruto tilted his head. "I thought it was a really ugly fox."
"If you squint at it, it kind of looks like a toad."
"Huh, you know what it does- wait a minute." Naruto turned to Kakashi with a disgruntled look. "Sensei! Stop distracting me! I didn't call you here to figure out what kind of animal it is!"
Naruto grabbed the statue and flipped it to show Kakashi its belly. "Do you see this?"
At first, Kakashi wasn't sure what Naruto was trying to show him and thought he was pointing at the uneven paint job, but he jolted in surprise when he finally noticed what was troubling his student.
"That's a Fūinjutsu seal? No, wait, it's a mix of Fūinjutsu and Ninjutsu?" Kakashi said, astounded and confused. "Why is there such a complicated seal on an ugly dog? Where did you find this thing?"
"I bought it from the market last week. I thought it looked like Kumra, so I bought it to make fun of him." Naruto rubbed at his neck awkwardly. "I only noticed the seal last night because I dropped it."
"Only you, Naruto." Kakashi shook his head in exasperation. "I guess you got lucky it didn't break. Who knows what could have happened if it had."
"I'm not that clumsy!"
Kakashi gave him a deadpan look.
"... anymore. I'm not that clumsy anymore, sensei! Stop looking at me like that and just tell me if you know what the seal does."
Kakashi carefully took the statue from Naruto and brought it up to eye level for a closer look. The writing on it was so tiny it felt impossible to read.
"I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure it says something about time and space."
"Time? That's not what I got from it at all! I thought it was talking about dimension." Naruto snatched the statue back from Kakashi, squinting at it. "Huh… you're right. It does have some signs for time in here…"
"I think I finally -" Naruto didn't get to finish when the statue slipped from his hand. Kakashi tried to catch it, but he was too late.
It fell to the floor between them with a clonk.
Both Kakashi and Naruto stood frozen for a moment, in complete shock.
It… didn't seem to have broken.
"Maa, that was a little anticlimactic."
Naruto looked up at Kakashi with a sheepish smile. "Wow, it would have been really bad if it had actually broken." He bent down to pick up the statue. "This seal is supposed to-"
Naruto shut up pretty quickly when the statue cracked in half. "Ah shit-" Naruto said with feeling, and that was the last thing Kakashi heard before the seal activated and the light completely blinded both of them.
Shikamaru opened the door to the Hokage's office with a heavy frown. His brows furrowed in confusion when he didn't find Naruto inside. He swore he had heard their new Hokage screaming.
And didn't Kakashi just come in a moment ago…
Was he already infecting Naruto with the bad habit of skipping work? Shikamaru would complain to Shizune about this. He wasn't going to deal with Naruto skipping work every chance he got for the rest of his career.
Shikamaru sighed, placing the paper mounting he was holding on the desk, and as he stepped back, something crunched under his foot.
When he looked down, he found the weird remains of what must have been a statue of sorts.
"Is this a statue of a cat?"