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The Sandaime had a bit of a conundrum. The Chuunin Exams were being held this year in the Hidden Cloud village. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but a Konoha ninja had made it to the final rounds.

The standard protocol for foreign exams was to send an obligatory team or two, but never anyone valuable. It was mostly a sign of good will. People didn't expect ninja from other villages to do well in the Chuunin Exams.

This was because the majority of ninja in the exam would be from the home village and they tended to target the visiting chuunin hopefuls. In any case, the exams were used to showcase the power of the village hosting them and unless there was some exceptionally strong foreign ninja participating, they didn't tend to make it to the finals.

In this instance, an unexceptional ninja from an unexceptional team just happened to get lucky and make it to the final round. The problem that arose from this is that it was generally seen as proper that the genin's respective Kage be present to observe the match.

It was a huge pain in the ass to try and get everything set up. You had to get clearance at every level, travel rights, blah blah blah, etc. It was no fun.

Then, the Hokage had an idea. He could cut down on the red tape if he didn't have some huge entourage. He wouldn't have to haggle with the council about allocution of forces. He wouldn't have to register all of his forces with the lightning country officials.

The reason he usually had to go to such lengths was because it would be foolish to enter potential enemy territory without a force strong enough to protect him. Now, he had Naruto. The boy had said he would be his assistant or body guard, so it was time for him to earn his keep.

Big Red, Chapter 9