Naruto props his body up on his palms, only his hands and toes touching the ground. It's summer in Konohagakure, and the air is still but shimmers with heat. He looks at the floor and knows it won't come to him on it's own. Everyone has to start somewhere, but only a choice can make a change.
He sinks to the floor until his nose touches the tile, and pushes himself back up. One.
Sasuke says it's important to speak truth to power. Naruto feels his bare chest redden despite himself, because yeah, he kind of found the highest point on the battlefield as soon as the fighting ended and yelled, "Now isn't the time to celebrate! Go home and bury your dead. We'll come back here in a month. Bring as many as you can muster. We're going to make sure this never happens again." Because when was he going to get another chance to change the system? No one really makes eye contact with him after that, though. One step at a time. He pushes himself up. Fifty.
There are a lot of mass funerals. People are buried by neighborhood and district, in big mass ceremonies. Naruto's requested a lot, but he spends most of his time training and writing and thinking these days. He goes to Neji's ceremony, though. Hinata's dressed in an all black shinobi uniform and she says a few words but everyone already knows how she feels, so what's the point? After it's over Naruto turns to go and Hinata comes and walks with him.
She's got a huge shiner. She's not the only one, though; it's the fashion for shinobi to refuse treatment until the critically injured are treated and all the dead are buried. They'll tell the medical shinobi to conserve their chakra for people who actually need it. Naruto and Sasuke didn't have the option, Sakura went over them with a fine-toothed comb, but Hinata waves a hand when Naruto grumbles about that.
"You're a symbol of the times," she says. "We need you whole. We need you strong. It makes us strong, too." Naruto goes quiet at that. Hinata's gotten really good at the whole "cutting through bullshit" thing, which he brings up in the form of thanking her for slapping him, back on the battlefield. She gives him a little smile, and he remembers that they just left Neji's funeral. Shit. This is not the time.
"Hey, maybe once this is all over—"
"Now," she says. "Because the changes you're trying to start won't ever be over. Say it now." Her eyes are still kind of scary, no matter how caring and gentle he knows she can be. Empty white lenses, seeing the exact right point to strike. He can feel her words sealing off every talking point he's got. It's kind of poetic.
"I was thinking...I'd like to get to know you better, is all. Now that we're not fighting Pain, or a war. We can just take walks, if that's okay. Start small." And she smiles, slow at first but then really big, like he's never seen anyone in her family do before. She says yes. And they start right there, wandering around the village and talking about reforms.
Naruto does another hundred push-ups lost in that memory. He's red in ways that don't have anything to do with physical exertion so he thinks about something else. Sasuke's face after his declaration on the battlefield had been pretty priceless; apparently he'd had his own revolution planned, but a faster one with more violence. Naruto is privately glad he nipped that one in the bud.
Team Seven goes for Ichiraku afterward and Teuchi's face at seeing all four of them back is priceless. All of them get free bowls, and Sasuke's comment that his miso "tastes like Naruto that one time we kissed" has Sakura choking for a few seconds. Sakura finishes first and runs off, because a medical shinobi of her level is always needed and frankly it's a miracle that she had enough time even to eat with her teammates. Kakashi likewise goes to check on Guy, so Naruto and Sasuke wander to all the old places. The training yard with the bells, the roof of the hospital, their classroom in the academy. They talk about changes. Sasuke says he's going to travel for the month, try to learn some things on the road, but that he'll be back in the village when they leave for the big meeting in a month.
Naruto has long since lost count of his pushups. He gets up and throws on a jacket so he can go outside and find the public baths without inciting a scandal. He soaks there for a good while. When he goes to leave, he can't move his body.
Shikamaru stares at him from across the bath. It's just the two of them. Naruto considers yelling for help, but frankly he knows how smart Shikamaru is. If this guy was trying to kill him, there wouldn't be any sense in resisting it or this Shadow Bind jutsu, which, wow, is actually still working even through the water. Shikamaru's not bad for such a lazy guy.
"If you wanted to talk, you could have just asked," Naruto says. Shikamaru's eyes are sharp underneath his drooping eyelids.
"Do you know what you're doing, Naruto? Do you know what 'reform' looks like? Half the clan heads want you dead and the other half don't think you can go the distance to actually make it happen." Naruto makes a noise kind of like, "uh". "Some of us are meeting tonight. Shinobi, civilians, everyone. Come by. You might learn something."
Naruto goes by. He hears words from the civilians that he didn't even know existed. Words like "supply lines" and "fiscal policy". The kind of things the old village would have left up to the Hokage and maybe the ANBU, but never the people who worked in it every day. At the end of the evening he hasn't spoken once and has written page after page of notes on the legal pad he brought with him. All the better.
After the official meeting, the group splits and hits restaurants and bars to talk more loosely about the changes to come. Naruto latches on to Team Eight and a few civilians, mostly small business owners but a few blue collar office grunts, and they have dinner. It's nice, and a symbol of these new days where shinobi and civilian life doesn't seem so separate.
Afterwards he and Hinata take another walk. Kiba follows from a distance until he remembers Hinata's Byakugan can still see him, at which point he takes off. They're silent for a while, the two of them, just enjoying the last traces of the sunset. When lanterns start coming on, the lights spark a conversation.
"Don't you feel something in the air?" Hinata says. "It's like...like the whole world is waiting to see what's going to happen. When I was young, my father used to make me spar with Hanabi, and...well. Things were different then. She trounced me every time, and I couldn't even bring myself to lay a hand on her. And this world, right now, is fragile. I'm a little afraid to touch it, just like back then.
"But of course, you've never been like that," she says. "Even when you were just the Nine-Tails to people, you always had something to prove, and you'd disrespect anyone or anything to make that happen." Naruto rubs the back of his head.
"You make it sound like I was a hero from the start," he says. "I was just a bratty kid."
"You were always a hero to me," she says. They're by a stream and so they sit and watch the lights on the water, laying back on the soft grass by the riverbed. "When we fought Pain, what I said—"
"I was going to—" But she talks right over him, not willing to be interrupted.
"I meant it. Still do. I don't know, I feel kind of fake, going on a series of first dates when I've been in love with you for years. Like, should we go share a milkshake, share a chaste first kiss outside my house while my father watches from the window? I love you, Naruto. I'm not sure you understand that yet, or want to. But I do. And I feel weird, waiting on you to catch up to where I am. I don't want to make you feel bad for not being in love with me, I know you probably just got over Sakura yesterday or something, I just..." Hinata rubs her face with her hands. "Can you let me love you? I don't want to pretend like this is casual for me, is all. I love spending time with you, but there's nothing casual about it."
"Hinata, let's get married."
"I. You...What?" For the first time that night, Hinata sounds shocked. She sits up a little bit to look down at Naruto, who's still on his back staring at the water. He turns his gaze to meet her eyes, completely serious.
"You heard me. I don't think this is casual either. Ever since I saw you standing up to Pain, since that confession, I've been thinking about you. How I feel about you. And I want to give it a try." Hinata shook her head and laughed like he'd told a joke that wasn't funny.
"I still don't see why you think marriage is the answer. Shouldn't we date or something first?" It's Naruto's turn to laugh. He sits up and gestures at the world around them that's already beginning to shift into something no one will recognize.
"Hinata, everything in the world is about to be turned over. We don't have to wait to make things change. Do you want to be my wife?"
"Do you want to be my husband?"
"Yes."
"Yes." Hinata lets it out like a sigh of relief. The next is more like a shout. "Yes!"
They don't actually get married until a year later. In that time, a lot of things happen that Naruto couldn't have seen coming.
For one, they don't solve the problem at the first meeting of nations. The first meeting is in nearly every respect a total disaster. Naruto and the Land of Fire delegation show up with a pretty long list of action items, tailored to producing the greatest benefit to the shinobi and civilians of Konoha. As it turned out, all the other shinobi villages have equally pressing issues, many of which have solutions that run directly counter to Konoha's. There is a lot of shouting and note-taking, and they end up resolving to meet again next month with new plans.
When the Land of Fire delegation gets back to Konoha, they are greeted by the daimyo of the Land of Fire, who would very much like to know who decided they were going to change his shinobi village without asking him first. No one says Naruto's name, but they all look right at him.
Negotiations take the rest of the month. At the end of it, the daimyo reserves the right to reject any proposal offered by the five villages, but they're free to negotiate. This is just in time for the disastrous second meeting, in which every delegation tempers their actual demands with the pressures they're under from their own daimyo. Every waking moment is a nightmare. Naruto's head swims with economic and political terms. A baker would probably be more suited to this than a shinobi, but he has to come, has to build a future where the engagement ring he's started wearing means something.
The drafting process continues for an entire eight months, at the end of which they have a four-hundred page manuscript detailing the workings of the new Alliance. In a few weeks of intense revision, they whittle this down to a slim fifty-page volume, which they deliver to the daimyo of the five great nations. There, on the desks of the most powerful people in the world, their proposal is unanimously rejected.
For two weeks, the daimyo hear nothing from the five villages. Then they hear whispers from the countryside that the shinobi are preparing for war, and quickly change their mind about ratification. A coup d'etat would leave their bases of power depleted, their coffers empty, and their military power seditious and angry. The daimyo choose the devil they know, and in signing change the world of shinobi forever.
Tsunade never wanted the position anyway, so when they come and tell her there's no such thing as a Hokage anymore, she laughs and wishes them the best of luck. Naruto is a little sad to see his dream job go, but when Sasuke asks him about it one day, he shrugs.
"I didn't actually want to be responsible for all those lives," he says. "I just wanted to be accepted. I don't have a big hat, but I do have friends, and that's enough for me. Speaking of, you and Sakura—"
It's complicated.
Sakura and Sasuke spend a lot of time together. A fool would think they were lovers, seeking out beautiful places to neck and whisper sweet nothings. What's really happening is Sakura ripping Sasuke eight new assholes per minute. Sasuke is an idealist, a philosopher with the powers of a god. He feels the wish to destroy that which is impure. Unfortunately, that's everything.
Sakura is a healer. She doesn't live with her head in the clouds like he does, she lives with her hands in someone's guts, trying her best to knit back together what the world's most dangerous people tore asunder. She doesn't have a lick of patience for philosophies that end in slaughter, or the people who carry them. So she and Sasuke argue constantly, always back and forth, never ending.
Sakura refuses political office, running Konoha's hospital instead. Sasuke, being unwelcome in many parts of the city and possessing no skills outside being a shinobi, takes missions. Now that all five nations have a single mission-granting entity, this allows him to spend weeks or months at a time away from the village, which is how most citizens like it. Naruto may be just as powerful, but he is still the boy who only eats miso and failed his exams. Sasuke is not just a former traitor. His black hair hides the eyes of Pain, of Madara—the eyes of the enemy. An Uchiha with a Rinnegan will never be a welcome sight in Konohagakure.
The new leader of the village is an elected mayor; a civilian with a good eye for numbers, someone who couldn't perform a basic ninjutsu but has been a trusted member of the civilian population for years. Naruto's never seen him before, doesn't know his face. The man's as conspicuous as an ear of corn in his slacks and button-down, but he's likeable enough. Of the five great shinobi villages, only two elected civilians. The others are lead by the newly re-elected former Hokage, still trusted enough to do the job well.
They're maybe twenty when the world turns over again. Sakura comes to Naruto and announces that she and Sasuke are having a child, despite the fact that Sasuke and Sakura can't spend five minutes in a room together without it exploding or trying to. She explains that they want to observe the way the pressures of the new world will shape a child to settle their debate. Naruto does not see the logic of this.
That night at dinner, he talks with Hinata about the idea of having children for the generation.
"It's a crazy idea," he says, forcing a laugh. "I mean, having children just to see how different from us they'll be..." Hinata sets her fork down. Naruto's pepper steak is actually pretty good, but his rice is sticking to her mouth and she needs a moment to work it down her throat before she can talk.
"Let's do it," she says, and Naruto breathes a sigh of relief, for which Kurama laughs at him mercilessly. "Let's have kids."
"Thank God you want to, too," he says. It's not like they don't have a sex life. But it's one thing to have sex for fun and an entire other to do it for the purpose of conception. Afterwards Hinata does headstands ("I don't know, Kiba said this works"), and Naruto realizes that he's watching his wife do headstands naked, bits flying every which way. He mentally slaps palms with his twelve-year old self.
A year later, nearly every woman in the village between the ages of eighteen and thirty is pregnant. "Movement babies" are a craze that hits all five villages hard, but the "official" first child of this generation is the one born from Uchiha and Haruno bloodlines. Sarada Uchiha does not cry when she is born, in contrast to her father, who is sobbing so hard he can't even hold her. Naruto is the one who holds little Sarada first, and he falls in love with her in the way that parents all over the world fall in love with their children. He hands her off to Sakura when his phone rings. Across the maternity ward, his wife is going into labor.
Hours later, Naruto can't feel his arm because during the birthing process Hinata got a little hysterical and sealed all of the chakra points there, but he's standing next to Sasuke looking down at Boruto and Sarada and he's a little misty-eyed himself. Sasuke starts crying again every time he sees Sarada's face, makes silly faces at her when she cries even though she probably can't even tell who he is yet.
The poor sap has already planned out her childhood, fully furnished her bedroom, filled shelves with every book Naruto could think of and more, and bought her dolls and toy swords and scrolls for learning jutsu. Sakura had to actively stop Sasuke from planning out her meals a year in advance. It goes without saying that he's going to be a stay-at-home dad for a few years, living on Sakura's salary to raise their daughter.
Boruto looks like his mother: a sweet, round face, silky hair, a soft mouth. But he has his father's eyes. Naruto doesn't have a clue how he and Hinata are going to do this. Looking down at his son, Naruto thinks for the hundredth time that neither he nor Hinata knows how to do right by a child. But between his relationship to Iruka and Kakashi, and Hinata's to Kurenai, he's hoping they manage to get it right.
They're good parents, they think. Himawari is quick on Boruto's heels, and the two of them do more for each other than Naruto and Hinata ever could. It really does take a village to raise a child, although in this case they're helped out by the fact that they're sharing three kids among four parents. Sarada is as much Naruto and Hinata's as Sasuke and Sakura's, and the same goes for Boruto and Himawari. It's a delight sometimes, finding the things they teach each other. Naruto sees it all in snapshot, bursts of growth every time he sees them, because his job takes him far afield.
He's become an ambassador, one of the few faces known in all five nations. He takes it by foot, visiting towns and learning their needs, reporting back to local shinobi villages and the daimyo. Trade negotiations, high-level mission requests, and gossip all travel with him. Occasionally he takes one of the kids with him, just to give them an appreciation for the cultures of other countries and villages.
The summer before their children go to the academy, he gets called to Kirigakure. It's a long trip, so he'd like company, but Hinata's keeping Boruto and Himawari in town. The Hyuuga clan has changed a lot in structure since she took over, and one of its traditions is that no techniques are exclusive to one branch of the family. The entire clan comes together in summers to workshop Byakugan and Gentle Fist techniques, and Naruto couldn't take his children away from their heritage even if he wanted to.
Sarada is excited, but it's only after she promises to practice her jutsu every day and reply to his letters that Sasuke agrees to let her go. She and Naruto set out in the early morning, each carrying backpacks. Sarada walks with the open curiosity of a child who is sure she is safe. Her Uncle Naruto would never let something hurt her.
Every day a hawk with red eyes swoops down and delivers a package to Sarada, who is delighted every time without fail. Sasuke doesn't understand how much his daughter idolizes him (although that is in part because her mother dislikes him; children, as a rule, are attracted to things their mothers despise). He sends her sweets, pictures of the village, and long letters on what he's up to. He also sends her a scroll, saying that when she performs the Fireball Jutsu on it, she should send it back with the hawks to get something special.
She does, and the hawks come back with a special package: a black shinobi uniform, emblazoned with the Uchiha crest. The letter it comes with is a postcard: Sasuke and Sakura smiling at the camera, giving peace signs. Sakura's smile is clearly forced. She has better things to do, but loves her daughter enough to get along with this man for a photo. On the back, it has writing in two hands.
As expected, one begins, you are my daughter. Shamelessly wear the Uchiha crest on your back, and soar to new and greater heights!
Dad
P.S.: I love you.
The other handwriting, cramped and practically unreadable:
I want you to know that this is a huge step. A more kind, hard-working, and lovely daughter could not be imagined. Keep practicing your chakra control and taking your vitamins. Stay hydrated, wear sunblock, eat at least two meals a day (not ramen!), and always stretch before you practice taijutsu. Don't think I won't know if you come back and haven't been keeping healthy.
Oh! I got carried away. Have fun on the road, take lots of pictures.
Lots of love,
xoxoxoxoxo
Mom
Sarada keeps the postcard in her backpack, pressed inside a copy of a novel she got from Kakashi and keeps hidden away at the bottom of her bag where she thinks Naruto won't notice. One day, while she's reading the postcard for the hundredth time, her eyes go red and black. Naruto has never heard of a Sharingan activating out of love before, but that's this era for you. This is a generation knows more of love than any who came before.
One night it rains. They've just made camp, and Sarada is bemoaning the noise and mud. Naruto gives her a look and grins in the way that still means trouble after all these years.
"In my day, we had an appreciation for this kind of weather." He pulls out a radio, one of the newer inventions of the day, and turns the station to an easy listening station. It's playing the Song, the one everyone gets up to dance to at the Rookie Nine Reunion Barbecues. It's just a nice beat with some vaguely distinguishable words, most notable among them being "And I love you!"
Naruto runs out into the rain and starts dancing. Sarada couldn't hold her giggles if she tried. Here is the savior of the world, failing to moonwalk as rain falls into his hair. He tries so hard that when he waves her over, she can't help it. She changes out of the outfit with the Uchiha clan mark and into plain clothes, then charges out to dance with him. Every few seconds the words pop up, and they lean in toward each other, singing "And I love you!" with their noses almost touching.
She's adorable, shaking her head from side to side, waggling her hips at a nonexistent audience. Sarada flips her hair like a diva and it's all Naruto can do not to choke laughing. She struts across their campground like it's a runway, then turns and throws her arms out. It could be a motion of accepting a gift, or of throwing one to him. Naruto doesn't really care. He knows that she's presenting him to an audience only she can see, announcing him to the world like he's brand new.
"Uncle Naruto!" she says in her best announcer voice, and what else is a guy to do?
He breaks it down.