The Seventh Hokage has held his office for two full weeks. He is a legend already.
At eighteen, he is remarkably young for the job. He is the last of a great legacy, and the student of masters. He is credited with destroying the fearsome Akatsuki, and running his hand through the chest of Uchiha Madara.
He is terrified that people will forget the true heroes; like the boy that fought the Akatsuki beside him and the Sixth Hokage that traded his life for the village.
There have been new names etched into the memorial stone during these short fourteen days, and Sasuke has made a point of overseeing each one. Uzumaki Naruto is there, just as he had hoped when he was twelve and stupid. The ANBU Tenzou is below him, and while Sasuke hardly knew him he respects him because Naruto did, and because he was there when the man did the impossible- restraining the Kyuubi for just long enough for it to be destroyed.
There are more, shinobi who died from hopeless strikes or as mere afterthoughts in the battle. The younger him would have called their deaths pointless, but as he's grown he's started to grasp something of what a boy he knew would have called loyalty, or maybe compassion, for Konoha. He's seen past the bitter cynicism of his childhood, and realized how late he's been in understanding things.
The Hero's Stone is aptly named, Sasuke thinks. He can blame himself at times like this, for taking a blade though the stomach and leaving Naruto alone with no other options against Konoha's greatest threats, but his self-pity is exhausted quickly nowadays.
Somehow he knows that it was the heroic end Naruto would have wanted- choosing victory over his own consciousness, being the hero his father had claimed him to be. And he would have been saddened only that others lost their lives dealing with the consequences.
He was always going on about pointless things like being respected and remembered, and Sasuke is determined to use his new authority to give him both. It took hours of arguing and petty squabbling to get his name on the stone (It's not technically a sacrifice if he died because he lost control, the little shits), and Sasuke's found quickly that his temperament was not designed for this sort of crass politics. But the old geezers gave in eventually, and he firmly believes any future obstacles and concessions are worth it.
It's merely another small pebble in the mountain of faults they hold against him, not the least of which being his young betrayal, or the fact that they still refuse to accept that Kakashi named him as his successor (the only surviving witness being his young fiancé).
Yet stubbornness is one thing he has not yet outgrown and, as shocking as it is, Sasuke has come to realize what he owes to the village. This is the kind of power he never wanted before, responsibility for others, but he knows that this is the only one that is actually important. Besides, he's never cared what others have said about him before, and he's not about to start.
He has the majority of the people, and all those that remain of his childhood comrades, to support him. Hinata and Neji bring with them the full weight of the Hyuugas, and Shino has recently been chosen to replace Tenzou as the head of ANBU. Shikamaru has already proven to be a valuable ally, for his mind was made for the sort of complicated mind-games that Sasuke would rather solve with a well placed chidori. There is the Sand too, whose Kazekage has sworn to protect Konoha as if it were his own village.
The elders have no choice but to concede when Sasuke proposes to add an orange spiral to the village's main gates.
They've begun the plans on adding the image of the Sixth to the Hokage monument. Sasuke has come to know Kakashi better these days than ever before. His position gives him access to even the most restricted of files, and he's been taken by a fierce desire to learn everything about his mentor's past. He's read the documents about his father, his sensei, and his comrades, and between the lines about his relationships with each of them, things Kakashi never sought to share with his students. Suddenly, he's can understand a great deal about the legend that taught him half of what he knows as a ninja, and all of what he follows as a man.
He can see how Kakashi was able to do what he did, and thinks that Tsunade must have known what would happen when she chose her successor. Sakura hasn't told him about her teacher's last moments yet, but he can guess that the title was something of a "thank-you" in advance. Because even Kakashi had what Sasuke's brother would have called weakness, but Sasuke has realized is nothing more than the greatest strength.
And there's a message hidden in the tangles of sacrifice and repetition, which Sasuke has spent the past few nights trying to comprehend. If he looks at it just right, it seems to be love. (Sasuke can hardly believe that this sentimental fool is him, but he knows whom to blame for it.)
The tragedy of it all isn't lost on him; Tsunade had been made Hokage while her brother and lover died (he's read her records too), and now Sasuke wears a cape and hat that he never wanted and never should have been offered.
"Naruto?" asks Sakura, coming beside him with a stack of paper in her arms. She kisses his cheek softly before placing the forms on his desk. There is a necklace hanging from her neck, and Sasuke avoids it carefully with his eyes. With a sad smile at his back she leaves without a reply, because she already knows the answer.
Sasuke's goal of reestablishing his clan has always taken second behind revenge, but with the death of Itachi he is no longer sure if it remains at all. He is the only one left to know the extent of darkness in the clan's past, and he does not want to change that just yet. Sakura has not mentioned anything about a family, and Sasuke understands their relationship is still a fragile bridge over the depth of their loss.
He is too busy anyway to spend much time thinking of a child or, thankfully, anything other than politics and diplomacy. The position of Hokage thus far has been little more than a glorified secretary in this new world, with the Akatsuki gone and the Kyuubi dead for sure this time. Kabuto was reportedly sighted on the borders of the Mist, but for the most part the ninja world is still reveling in its newfound peace.
They have heroes to thank for it.
AN: All right, it is my personal opinion that the canon Sasuke does not have the redeeming factors I've endowed mine with (being nothing more than an arrogant little brat), but what is fanfiction for anyway? Haha, I like this one more than its sequel actually. More introspective and just as angsty ;).