Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. I only own my imagination.
The Godaime Hokage sat at her desk with her archenemy called paperwork and sighed. Her life wasn't supposed to be that way. Right now she should be sitting in a bar with her old teammate Jiraiya and drinking her ass off. But that wasn't possible. Jiraiya had been dead for a long time already, killed by one of the students he had taken in after the big battle against Hanzou the Salamander. And the reason why she couldn't simply get drunk on her own? It was simple: She was bound to the office and there was too much paperwork for her alone to handle, so she was always behind that workload and the elders continually complained about her angry mood and the slow development of the work she was forced to do. It didn't help that the piles grew every day and her assistant Shizune had to "motivate" her a lot, because the three storage rooms full of unfinished paperwork could burst every moment.
She wanted to simply give the title to someone else already and just retire. Maybe she could only work in the hospital from time to time then, only attending to the really bad cases, though she knew she didn't even have to do that. Her apprentice had surpassed her years ago and by now the young woman was the hospital's director. Haruno Sakura had managed to become the world's most famous and best Iryounin. People from around the elemental nations came to Konoha's hospital just to be examined and healed by her. Tsunade was really proud of her, but she still thought it was a waste for the brutally strong Jounin to be confined in the walls of the hospital. Sakura had always executed her missions perfectly, without any problems, has been very polite to all of the clients and she had been fast in accomplishing everything. It was a mystery to the Godaime how the girl had managed to finish her missions so fast, never returning from them after half of the estimated time it probably took to do them.
But the Sannin had never thought about that too much, all she had cared about was that she had gotten the perfectly written mission report much earlier and that the clients had been so satisfied with the pink-haired girl that they had insisted to give more than generous "tips".
At that train of thought she sighed again and granted herself the luxury to look out of the window. The bustling town had changed quite a lot during all of those years. The buildings all looked so young that nobody would think this village existed for almost a century already. After Akatsuki's attack so long ago everyone had been forced to help rebuilding the houses and make the streets walk-able again. The only thing that had miraculously survived that attack unharmed had been the Hokage monument. There was not one person in the whole world that could've answered the question of why it looked just the same as at the time the village had been founded, with the exception of the new faces on it, but everyone knew that if that wonder hadn't happened, they wouldn't have had enough motivation to rebuild their hometown. The monument was like an anchor, in the past, the present and the future. It helped the people of Konohagakure to live through bad days and even worse, unconsciously or not. It stood like an outer wall around the village, visible from every point in town. And just like everyone could see it, the monument and all the former Hokage on it watched out for the village and villagers likewise.
Tsunade's hazel eyes fell on the monument. For her it seemed that something was wrong with it. She had felt that way even before her own face had been carved into it. A little minor detail that irked the current Hokage every time she had to look at it.
The blond-haired idiot's face was missing.
Thinking about Naruto always made her sad. She had become so used to that boy's visage and constant bickering that every time she saw a blond head in the crowd she was forced to think about the silly grin and matching whisker marks. He was the probably now full-grown man that should get that title and do the paperwork, not her. It was him that had wanted the title so badly, instead of her that at first had refused it so vehemently.
She sighed again for the umpteenth time. It was too late now. The moron was gone. Quickly glancing at the calendar on her table she realized that tomorrow was an anniversary. The thirteenth anniversary of Uzumaki Naruto's departure from Konoha.
Thirteen. It almost sounded like a bad omen. Tsunade hoped that Naruto was save where he was right now. Although there were tons of letters from him sealed away in the so-called "Naruto-shrine" which were read out loud by her and the old Rookie12 to the whole town every half year when a new one arrived, she still worried about him. Not because he had written anything bad, no, nothing like that at all. It was more because of the obvious lack of information that had made her frown every time a letter had found it's way into her hands. He had often written about something as trivial as the weather or the good food he had always seemed to find somewhere, although it could never compete to Ichiraku's ramen. No need to say that every time a letter containing such a sentence had arrived, both Teuchi and Ayame had started crying and stating that whenever he came back, he would get a year's worth of ramen for free.
The blond had also written about some people he had met on his journey. In his first letter he had written that he had accidentally met Temari while she had been on a mission and she had blown him miles away with her fan for interfering.
Laughing at that particular message, Tsunade's thoughts flew to the one following. It had been the shortest letter of all containing only two sentences.
"Got drunk for the first time. Ero-sennin would've been proud of me."
Somehow Sasuke had been the one chosen to read it out loud from on top of the Hokage tower with a microphone. Although those words had originally been from Naruto, everyone still laughed at the serious and stoic young man saying something so… unbefitting him.
After Naruto had beaten Uchiha Madara together with the broody black-haired boy, who had fallen unconscious at the end, the hyperactive one had dragged him to the hospital in Konoha telling Sakura not to let him get away again. To everyone's surprise the Uchiha hadn't even tried to get out of the steel-chains containing him to the bed or to rip the breathing device out of his throat. When he had been released from the hospital, Sasuke had been forced to live with Naruto for two months, until the blond got the news that there was someone out in the world who heard of Uzumaki Naruto, the world-saver, and actually claimed to be his relative.
The blond had been ecstatic, shocked and had practically torn his whole apartment down for clothes to pack for the journey. Showering poor Tsunade with questions he should've known she couldn't have the answer to, Naruto had jumped up and down in her office with so much glee on his face… no one had seen that and it had been infectious. And Tsunade had hated herself so much when she had had to tell the enthusiastic boy that the only information really written in the message had been the relatives-fact and the sender's name.
"Uzumaki Sakiko, huh?" Tsunade mused, the name had definitely ringed a bell even all those years ago, but she denied Naruto to go and try to find the woman. It had been too dangerous, it could've been a trap set up by some lower Akatsuki members still left alive somewhere.
She should've known that he wouldn't listen.
And so it had happened that only one week after the arrival of Sakiko-san's letter the whole village had met up at the gates, waving their favorite blond ninja good-bye. Sakura had actually been crying, screaming that she would go with him, but he only said that it was his family, oh, how he had smiled at that word, and that it was his responsibility only to find this woman. Not one had argued with him at the glare that he had managed to produce then. And Sasuke… actually hugged him, saying that he had had to find that woman no matter what and that the blond better write letters… or else!
It had been such a heart-breaking good-bye that everyone agreed on delaying the blonde's departure by about an hour to make a last picture of them, of Konohagakure as one big union, because after he would be gone from sight everyone, even Naruto, knew that there would be a huge hole left behind waiting to be filled by him.
And it was still there. That gaping hole that everyone knew existed, but with everyday was more and more forgotten.
Naruto had never once written about Sakiko, or about any other Uzumaki. He had never thought it to be important to write anything about his progress in his quest. Not even vague directions or regions had been written and Tsunade wasn't even so sure if he was still searching for that woman or if he had already settled down with the intention to never come back. She frowned again. Naruto wouldn't do that, would he? At least not before he became the Hokage. That made the now 68-year old woman smile again. Uzumaki Naruto would never betray his biggest dream. Never.
Oha! I'm alive! Well, this plot bunny jumped at me and started choking, screaming at me to write it out! Of course I couldn't say no. :D This is just the prologue, and I hope you guys are going to love what this plot bunny has produced. I would seriously love it if anyone could give it a try and try to figure out what I've got in mind. heheh... I hope it's not too obvious. xDDDD