Summary: In the hidden village of Konoha, there was a running joke that the Rokudaime Hokage was spending far too much time with the infamous Nara Shikamaru.
Warning! Shounen-ai, sasunaru. As usual, horribly un-beta-ed. Divergent future beginning from the battle at the Valley of the End. From my religion notebook from last year. (It seems religion is my most... err... inspiring... class...)
Dedicated to: Jezelle. Sorry for taking forever. Peace!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
While the usually robust, blue-eyed blonde was surprisingly responsible and always, always did his job well… for the past years since after his first few months of induction into office, he'd been spending all his free time sleeping.
Breakfast, work, lunch, nap, work, dinner, nap, work, sleep… with the occasional snack and even rarer moment of fun with friends… that was the legendary Uzumaki Naruto's current – and scarily consistent – schedule. Needless to say, the second running joke in the village was that it was a wonder that the Rokudaime wasn't a tub of lard yet… not that it's possible to gain fat when you're a workaholic and a kage at the same time, of course… but it was still fun to say it.
Sakura, Iruka, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade… everyone. Every single one of his friends and mentors worried. Occasionally, they took him out for dinner or drinks and he'd usually agree; but they had this mutual consensus not to try to rid him of the 'sleeping habit'. Because it was Naruto, after all. Even if no one knew what was wrong – only one person ever could, when it came to Naruto – they could all sort of understand, to an extent. Even if it wasn't necessarily in a positive way, at least Naruto was dealing with whatever it was that was bothering him non-destructively.
There were very rare moments when Tsunade regretted making Naruto Rokudaime… and even then usually only lasting for a few seconds. Except that time when an annoyed Kazekage just left from a long, private talk with the Hokage, muttering darkly about 'idiotic loyalists' and 'idiotic, bastardly traitors'. When that happened… Tsunade had to drown her regrets quite enthusiastically, and not even her medical prowess could possibly save her from the next morning's hangover.
Of course, that only happened once… the time Gaara found out about Naruto's new sleeping habit during the first Chuunin exam Naruto had ever presided over.
//"What was that about?" Tsunade asked, entering her former office quietly.
Naruto laughed easily. "Nothing. Gaara's just being paranoid…"//
In any case, even if they did still cause her stress, Tsunade was glad Naruto had such loyal friends to make up for the one that had gone awry.
Unfortunately, 'to make up' was an extremely relative term.
Tsunade, of course, knew more than anyone else about 'idiotic loyalists' and 'idiotic, bastardly traitors'. She was, after all, the 'older-sister-slash-mother figure' here. And excepting her… and maybe Gaara after that long, private, and possibly semi-violent talk… no one knew the extent of Naruto's regard for his 'first and best friend'.
She knew how Naruto continued hunting the Uchiha… even after his almost-death at the Valley of the End. Tsunade knew how those 'solo-missions' Naruto was always out were not always actual missions, but Naruto's free time turned into Sasuke-hunts.
…And she knew; that when Naruto was 16 and an anbu, a prodigy within the ranks of the Yondaime, Itachi, and Kakashi… He had succeeded in finding Sasuke, completely by accident, in the middle of an actual solo-retrieval mission.
//Naruto was surrounded. Getting the scroll was no big deal, but it seemed as if getting home would be.
Even if he did have the Kyuubi's chakra at his disposal, he was still human… and any human would have serious trouble taking care of a dozen class-S nin.
"Oi, dobe. Need a hand?"
…Help came in the most unexpected packages, it seemed…//
Both fortunately and unfortunately for one Uzumaki Naruto, the brother-hunting Sasuke had apparently been after this particular group for information; and, for the first time in years… the two fought together. Surprisingly well, in fact. Almost as if Sasuke had never left, as if they've seen each other for every day of their lives without fail.
But then again… those two have always been that way. They always seemed to fit, somehow…
Things got cloudy after that. Naruto just sort of quieted and had gotten this faraway look in his eyes after he told Tsunade that Sasuke had "essentially saved his ass… or at least a couple of bones and a hell lot of blood."
What Tsunade did know, was that when Naruto had on that contemplative look which both fit and yet looked invariably wrong on him – there was a spark in his eyes that hadn't been there for seemingly a lifetime, the brightness of which was both greater and yet hazier than it was those many years before.
Only Tsunade knew that from that moment onward, every time Naruto went out on a 'Sasuke-search', he would find the Uchiha. He'd rarely actually tell the Godaime that, of course, but that spark in his eyes was a very reliable thing to go by.
//"Is he getting laid in those missions of his?" Jiraiya asked, one day. "I haven't seen him that happy since…"
The statement trailed. It always trailed.
Tsunade, who fought hard not to spit out her sake, coughed slightly.
"Maybe he is. But I should hope not. Let's just be thankful whatever he's doing in those missions is making him happy."
Tsunade stared long and hard at Naruto, who was slurping ramen happily from a few tables away, and fought to control her twitching.
"Dear lord, I hope to god he's not getting laid." She muttered darkly. "I'll kill him. Him. No, both of them."
Jiraiya pretended not to hear.//
But, seven years later… at the young age of 23, Naruto was inducted into the role he had always dreamed of playing. The Hokage. In fact, the second youngest in history; as much as how Tsunade was second oldest to retire.
What must be understood at this point, however, is that Kages, in general, only leave the village for special circumstances. Rank promotion exams, peace talks, special negotiations, and the like. Absolutely nothing below 'absolutely necessary'. As it was, the only reason the Kazekage could so freely travel to Konoha was that the two villages held a very strong and important alliance; and that he had two siblings that everyone respected as much as he.
The point is, wherever the Rokudaime went, a truckload of Anbu will undoubtedly escort or trail within a mile radius. The Hokage is not allowed to wander off to god-knows-where to look for and/or meet shady characters, much less S class missing-nins named Uchiha Sasuke.
And this is exactly where the problem lies. When Naruto had become Hokage, he had become increasingly hard to pry off work. In fact, there were days or maybe even weeks when he would forget to eat or sleep. Tsunade was torn between admiring Naruto's choice of dealing – which was surprisingly totally productive work-wise – and throttling Naruto for getting depressed in the first place.
Because Naruto was such a great actor, most people just thought he was being overzealous, as he was always known to be. After all, he'd always been sort of a workaholic – always training as a genin and chuunin, and then all those 'missions' as jounin.
Of course, Tsunade was the only one who knew that 'all those missions' were not really always 'missions'; and that oftentimes, her 'late work stays' in the Hokage tower were simply for the hell of it and to drink quietly and in peace, not really work like what Naruto was wont to doing.
At this rate, there would no longer be piles of paper to make it seem as if the Hokage was always busy…
//"Just… just sleep it off, or something. It'll do you some good."//
Tsunade didn't think those words would create such a great impact. The next day, Naruto had a shadow of that spark in his eyes.
//"I dreamt well. Thanks for making me sleep, Tsunade-baba."//
It was fine at first, but when the cycle became a trend, it was natural that Tsunade confronted Naruto. But, in the end… she couldn't do anything anyway. Because it was Naruto's way of dealing. No matter how much it hurt to acknowledge it, without that cycle, he would probably waste away…
//"You shouldn't continue doing this. Dreams… are just dreams." Tsunade said, watching Naruto sort papers.
Naruto looked up at his predecessor and smiled.
"Maybe. But once, being Hokage was just a dream too."
Silence.
Naruto looked out the window, his gaze turning distant.
"And… this dream was once a memory. What is to say that one day, it may not become reality once more?"
Naruto blinked, and turned to smile at Tsunade brightly once again.
"Dreaming may be just dreaming, but… sometimes, isn't it better than nothing?"//
She wondered if he really hadn't started wasting away, all those years ago…
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