In Naruto, the System Asks Me to Entrust Pokémon

The next day, at the gates of Konoha—

Kakashi's team walked through the entrance.

"We're finally back! I'm going to eat ramen—five big bowls!"

Naruto stretched out his arms, his face full of excitement as he shouted.

Passersby turned their heads toward him, their expressions a mix of amusement and pity.

Poor kid—has he never had a proper meal? they thought. He finally made it back to the village, and all he wants is ramen?

"Naruto, get back here! You're embarrassing us!"

Sakura, noticing the stares from the villagers, felt her face heat up. She walked up to Naruto and yanked his ear, dragging him back.

"Ahem—"

Kakashi coughed lightly. "Let's just get our registration done quickly and head inside."

As Naruto reluctantly pulled back, the curious eyes of onlookers remained on them.

Even with his mask on, Kakashi felt a little uncomfortable under all the weird looks.

Yeah… best to get this over with quickly.

Under Kakashi's lead, the group walked to the registration booth.

Seeing two unfamiliar shinobi stationed there, Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Where are Izumo and Kotetsu? Aren't they on duty today?"

Those two had always been dedicated, guarding the village gates rain or shine. In all his time, Kakashi had never seen them take a day off.

But now, they were gone, replaced by two unfamiliar faces.

"Huh?"

The two guards looked up upon hearing Kakashi's voice. Recognizing him, they greeted, "Oh, Kakashi-sama! The two seniors went to catch Pokémon today, so we're filling in for them."

"Pokémon? You mean like Ivysaur?"

Naruto perked up at the mention of Pokémon, his curiosity piqued as he leaned in toward the new guards.

"Ivysaur?"

The two shinobi exchanged confused looks. "What's an Ivysaur?"

Kakashi rolled his eye and shot Naruto a glare before turning back to the guards. "You mean the northern mountains?"

They nodded. "Yes, that's right. Hokage-sama ordered all shinobi to catch at least one Pokémon. The two seniors went today."

Kakashi frowned slightly. "That was the Hokage's order?"

The guards nodded again. "Yes."

Hearing this, Kakashi didn't press further. "Alright, we'll be on our way."

With that, he led the team into the village.

As they walked through the streets, they frequently spotted Pokémon alongside villagers and shinobi alike.

"Wow, so many Pokémon! This is great! That means Brother Ryo is going to make a ton of money!"

Naruto grinned as he watched the Pokémon scattered throughout the village.

He had met Ryo months ago and knew just how poor the guy used to be.

Back then, Ryo was even worse off than Naruto himself.

Naruto had seen firsthand how hard Ryo worked every day just to make ends meet.

Now, seeing Pokémon everywhere in the village, he couldn't help but feel happy for him.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was lost in thought.

Unlike Naruto, he was considering the bigger picture. He knew how difficult it was for ordinary people to acquire Pokémon.

What exactly happened while we were away?

"Alright, I'm off to report the mission. You guys can do as you please," Kakashi said abruptly before vanishing in a flash.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke blinked in confusion.

"So… what do we do now?"

Sakura turned to the other two.

Without saying a word, Sasuke turned and began walking in a certain direction.

Naruto frowned. "Sasuke, where are you going?"

Without looking back, Sasuke answered, "Pokémon Home."

During their last mission, he realized just how little he actually knew about Pokémon.

His Charmander had also sustained some minor injuries. They weren't serious, but it was better to get it checked out.

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Wait up! I'm coming too!"

His Bulbasaur had evolved into Ivysaur, so he needed to visit Pokémon Home as well.

Sakura sighed, shaking her head as she followed them.

However, as they disappeared down the street, two figures emerged from the shadows nearby.

One of them spoke. "Zabuza-sama, should we make a move now?"

Zabuza shook his head. "Not yet. We'll rest for two days. Now that we've located our target, there's no rush."

Haku nodded in agreement before the two vanished into the city.

Meanwhile, at Pokémon Home—

Ryo looked at the bustling shop, his face exhausted.

He had expected today to be busy, but not this busy.

From the moment he had woken up until now—just before noon—his small shop had been packed with people non-stop.

At no point had there been fewer than ten people inside.

He was even starting to worry that his little wooden cabin might collapse under the sheer number of visitors.

"Alright, alright! Once you've got your Poké Balls, head to the back!"

After explaining the rules and directing the customers, Ryo finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Ryo, is it going to be like this every day from now on?"

Cynthia wiped the sweat from her forehead as she turned to Ryo, her voice laced with exhaustion.

Originally, Ryo had planned to train Diancie in the morning, but he hadn't expected the shop to suddenly get flooded with customers.

With things getting out of hand, he had called Cynthia over to help.

But before they knew it, the entire morning had passed in a blur, and Cynthia was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Ryo shook his head. "It won't be like this every day. The rush will settle down after a few days."

Pokémon weren't consumables—people wouldn't come back daily.

"Alright, it's finally quiet for now. Take a break while you can—more people might show up in the afternoon."

Despite the never-ending stream of customers all morning, in total, only about a hundred people had come through.

For a place like Konoha, that number was hardly overwhelming. Even for the shinobi population, it wasn't an absurd amount.

So while there was a bit of downtime, it was best to take advantage of it and rest.

Cynthia nodded without saying much. She pulled out two ice creams, handing one to Ryo before sitting down to enjoy hers.

Ryo took the ice cream, glanced at Cynthia, and found a seat for himself as well.

With his mental strength nearly reaching the Kage-level threshold, he didn't feel particularly exhausted despite the morning rush.

Even as he ate his ice cream, his eyes stayed on the entrance, deep in thought.

He needed to find a way to make things easier. While he wasn't physically tired, the constant stream of customers was consuming too much of his time.

At this rate, he was falling back into his old routine—no time to train or improve himself.

"Looks like having just Cynthia as an employee isn't enough. And she can't be stuck handling customers all the time—she has her own Pokémon training to focus on too."

Ryo let out a tired sigh, rubbing his temples.

When there were no customers, he worried about having too few. But now that business was booming, he was struggling with the opposite problem.

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