Summary: Kiba isn't Hokage material. He's just the best out of a few bad options. He's just a temporary band-aid Hokage until someone can take over.
Or: Kiba is a brilliant Hokage and everyone but him can see that
Naruto Week, June 19 || Day 2: Favourite Moment / Burden / Hidden Sand Village
Sorry for any errors!
The day Kiba becomes Hokage is nothing like he once envisioned it would be when he was younger and so, so naïve. When he was an aspiring shinobi, Kiba understood more than most. He understood what death was and that murder and shinobi went hand in hand, but the world has changed a lot, and nothing is like it was back then.
Kakashi looks at him through what appears to be bored eyes, but Kiba knows he's worried. Worried about the future of Konoha and worried about who should take the role.
Kiba isn't an idiot, regardless of what people think of him. He knows he's not the ideal candidate for Hokage - he's too impulsive, too bull-headed.
But he knows he's the only option.
Naruto's dream for the hat may still happen one day, Kiba is a bit of band-aid Hokage after all, just meant to hold the title until either Naruto sorts himself out or someone else gets their act together.
Tsunade sighs, strides over to him and slams the hat onto his head.
"Kiba," she says, gripping his chin in her hand and tilting his head up to look her in the eyes. "I don't know, and I don't think I'll ever understand what's going through that head of yours, but one thing I do know for certain is that you will be the best Hokage Konoha has ever seen. Maybe not the strongest, not the smartest -"
Kiba lets out a snort at that, confusion and disbelief melding into something that just seems terribly funny in his head.
Tsunade grins before continuing. "But you are the Hokage Konoha needs and needed."
He's not really sure what to make of that. Kiba isn't that strong, that smart or any other quality that would make him an outstanding Hokage.
It's almost like Tsunade wants him in this position and wants him to stay in that position.
He doesn't want to say that Tsunade is a bad judge of character, but maybe she is putting too much faith in him. Maybe she got this one wrong.
"I'll do my best," he says. He may have doubts, but he's the Hokage now. If he has them, the only one who needs to know about it is him.
It doesn't make it any easier and doesn't make the feeling of dread go away, but he's always been good at keeping how he really feels buried deep.
And that's exactly where it's going to stay.
A Root shinobi begs for his life at Kiba's feet and for a moment, he wonders what the Hokage before him would do. They wouldn't let this man walk free.
Kiba glances over at Sai. His face is about as readable as a brick, but it's not hard to imagine what he's thinking. Regardless of this shinobi's crimes, he was manipulated, misguided, and controlled just like Sai was and now Sai is the head of ANBU and this man and many others in the same position as this one are never going to have the chance to make more of themselves.
Well, they would if Kiba was anyone else.
But Kiba is an Inuzuka, unlike any of his predecessors. And Kiba needs to start doing things differently.
"Stand up," Kiba says. The Root shinobi pulls himself up and doesn't meet Kiba's gaze.
"Death is not the answer here," he says, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'll work something out. Dismissed."
Sai's shoulder's sag minutely, and Kiba hopes that this was the right decision.
He turns and meets the furious face of one of the council members. He opens his mouth but Kiba holds his hand up to silence him. "Whether you like it or not Danzou is who created Root shinobi. And Danzou was a shinobi of Konoha - a part of your generation no less. They are, and always have been Konoha shinobi, and that is not something that can just be ignored." The council member stares at him, fury bubbling off every inch.
"You know nothing-" he starts but Kiba silences him again, stepping closer and baring his fangs. "It was your council that has led me to have to make this decision and many more that I will be making in the next year. So far all your council has given me is a good guide on what not to do."
Kiba smiles, gestures to Sai, Ino, Shikamaru and Sakura to join him and walks past the man.
Kiba isn't sure if Danzou's soldiers can be saved. Surely some of them are beyond help. Some of them, Kiba will be unable to pardon them.
But Kiba owes it to them to try.
After all, no one else will.
Akamaru sits by Kiba's feet in a steadying presence. There is no clear-cut right or wrong decision to make and he finds drawing on the past Hokages leaves him at a loss.
Sasuke Uchiha, by all accounts, is a criminal. An internationally wanted criminal. Kiba doesn't like Sasuke. But locking Sasuke away just feels wrong.
The only reason Sasuke went off the rails in the first place can once again all be drawn back to Danzou. And while Danzou wasn't Kiba's problem as Hokage to deal with, he has to handle the massive backlash from Danzou's actions. Danzou was the cause of so much pain, it simply isn't right to pin it all on his victims.
Kiba can't excuse all of Sasuke's actions. Attacking the Kage at the summit is only one of the crimes that he needs to be punished for.
Sasuke sits in front of him and Kiba wonders if he is really fit for this role of Hokage. Any other Hokage would either have Sasuke imprisoned or executed and looking at Sasuke on paper it seems like it's just what he deserves. But there's so much more to Sasuke than a file can describe.
Sasuke deserves some sort of leniency for been subjected to such manipulation for so many years.
And Kiba is sure Naruto would suffer immensely if anything happened to Sasuke.
Akamaru leans into Kiba's leg, a more than reassuring presence. a
Kiba hums and stares down at the paperwork in front of him.
Kiba doesn't like Sasuke and even though Sasuke's story is twenty kinds of tragic, Kiba also can't put Naruto through that pain of Sasuke's imprisonment or death. He will not let Sai suffer, and he will not let Sakura suffer.
Kiba isn't sure there is a right thing to do. Letting walk free is wrong, but imprisoning or executing him, or keeping him in Konoha seems inhumane. Letting him leave Konoha where Kiba can't keep an eye on him is wrong as well.
"Every single person in a position of power wants you dead," Kiba says. Sasuke nods.
"Because you have Konoha ties and if I send you anywhere else you'll end up dead, you aren't permitted to leave the Land of Fire. You will report back to me every week and I will know if you leave."
"You are revoked of your title of Shinobi and aren't allowed to engage in any form of combat unless in self-defence where you see your life to be under threat."
Shino and Hinata and helped him come up with the conditions a few days ago. He'd presented them to Sai, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kakashi and Tsunade, gaining their signatures and support.
He was met with resistance, but the council has been operating in the same way it has been for decades. And that way has landed them in war after war after war. After Kiba had pointed out a copious amount of flaws in their way of operations, their approval came easier.
Kiba tried not to think how he was blatantly manipulating them.
Sasuke's shoulder's sag like all the light and energy is sucked out. "Thank you," he says so quietly Kiba almost misses it.
This was the best solution he could come up with. Kiba didn't think it was right, still felt like there was so much going unpunished, but it was the best of a variety of even worse options.
"Don't thank me, Sasuke," Kiba pushes the paper across the desk with a pen for Sasuke to sign it.
Kiba hopes this works out. If it doesn't, it's all on his head.
Kiba is the first Hokage to do a lot of things. The first to have a successful relationship with every other country and the first to hold peace during his entire time as Hokage.
He's also the first to refuse to have his head on the Hokage mountain.
Kiba's learnt many things over the years. But he's learnt that the line between right and wrong isn't clear. It's not black or white, but instead a million shades of grey.
Some of Kiba's decisions have been wrong, but he thinks, he hopes that most of them were right. Instead of making a legacy of his own, Kiba's spent his life cleaning up the colossal messes made by his predecessors whose decisions were bad beyond recognition.
Kiba doesn't want or need his head up there. All he did was bare the burdens of the Hokage before him. All he did was stitch up what had come undone, and clean up the messes that he could.
The Seventh Hokage didn't think of himself to be much. He never thought of himself to be worthy of such a title of Hokage even to the day of his retirement. But Kiba Inuzuka left a mark on every citizen in Konoha and even beyond.
Kiba Inuzuka loved, showed mercy where needed, and made all the decisions that not a single other before him wanted to make.
Kiba Inuzuka taught his people to do their best, and to never shy away from the reality that's in front of them, no matter how much they don't like it.