The Rokudaime Hokage.
Sasuke stared at the inanimate object. He wanted it to crumble under his gaze, to burn, to shatter, to disappear. But funnily enough, it just stayed…
Inanimate.
No matter which way you look at it, he decided, it wasn't going to leave.
And that was the part that he loathed.
He couldn't change the fact it was there, mocking him. Taunting him. Reminding him. When he had heard, he had dropped everything to return. He'd abandoned his Sound team for this. He'd abandoned his goal.
He let Itachi walk free…
And all for the sake of this lifeless object.
He'd heard the news straight from the pink haired whiner. She'd come to seek him out…
"What do you want, Sakura?" he hissed. He was so close to locating Itachi.
"Sa-sasuke-kun. I- we need you… to come back."
"I've told you, I have my Clan to avenge. I will not –"
"It's… it- you… you have to come back… Its…"
So he came back. She said those two words, and that changed everything.
How though? How could it have happened? It wasn't supposed to. He promised. He went back on his nindo. He swore… he promised… to the village…
To Sakura…
To Gaara…
To Tsunade…
To me…
But he lied. He went back on his nindo. He went back on it. His lie came in the form of a B-turned-S-class mission. He changed. He changed…
Us.
………………………………………………………………………………………….
Sakura never really noticed him, until he was gone. She never knew that she had come to miss the unmissable child.
………………………………………………………………………………
Hinata was never the same. If she was quiet before, she never spoke a word now. Last week she passed her Jounin exams. Aged fourteen. The same year Neji passed. She obliterated her opponent, putting all her emotion into every strike.
Just like he taught her. She fought for him.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Sasuke heard that, a month after, the Hokage had to run around arranging a council with the new Kazekage. A year after achieving his goal, Gaara simply refused to be Kazekage any longer.
If he didn't get to, he had reasoned, why should he?
It had not been his dream first.
Kakashi was never late from that day on. If only he had gotten there on time… all this would have never happened.
Jiriya never gave the Toad summoning scroll to anyone again. He never offered the opportunity. He never found anyone as worthy. With his death, the scroll was locked in the Hokage Tower archives.
And lost.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
Years later, Tsunade slung the necklace over her neck one last time.
As the necklace finally took her as its' own.
It was time to elect the sixth Konoha Hokage. It was his dream to become so. It was his goal.
The man turned the offer down.
"You… don't want to be the Hokage. Its' been your dream…?"
"I can't accept the Rokudaime position. It is not mine to take."
"But-"
"No buts. Announce to Konoha that they have their new Shichidaime."
"… hai, Konohomaru-sama."
The position was left for him to take. After all his years of fighting, and it was just sitting there, for him. Ready to be accepted.
But he wasn't there to claim it.
They elected the Shichidaime Hokage that day.
Konoha never officially had a Rokudaime Hokage.
They couldn't. Because someone had already claimed that position.
And he wasn't there.
…………………………………………………………………………………….
It had changed everything. It had changed everyone. Nobody even knew what they had till it was gone.
So…
He just stared at it.
That inanimate object.
That gravestone.
Uzumaki Naruto…
Yea. Just a thought. If I was being to vague, Naruto's dead, and Tsunade killed herself somewhere along the way, about five or so years after Naruto's death. Just to give Konahomaru some time to grow up. He was what, like, ten? Konahomaru is obviously Hokage. Poor Gaara, I didn't want to make him quit, but I thought it added a poignant touch to it; not being able to accept it because it wasn't his dream.
NekoVampireNinja
PS. Formerly AlinaAnila.
PSS. I MAY MAKE THIS A ONESHOT COLLECTION FIC. SO IF YOU LIKE IT, ADD IT TO STORY ALERTS!