Dark Endings – Fading Fires
A/N This is something that has been lurking around for a few months now. I will of course continue 'Fury' and '20th' as well. So don't worry about them, although the pace of updates may slow. I've started posting word counts for my stories over on the tjchaos page that is linked in my fanfiction dot net profile.
This story is set about 10 years after Naruto returned from his training trip with Jiraiya. So the 'Rookie Nine' should all be around 25 years old. It will be written that the akatsuki were basically defeated and that Konoha has had a time of relative peace since. There are some bad implications for Jiraiya in the current manga story so if anything happens to him that will probably be the divergent point for this story. I think I've been holding off working on this story in order to see what happens in the current manga arc but I'm also getting to the point of saying 'screw it' and just go with what I've got.
This one is rated M primarily for violence. The first chapter is likely going to be the tamest one of this story. Yes it's another NaruHina story of sorts anyway. The primary category is Tragedy and this first chapter is just the opening for that.
Ch. 1
Jiraiya woke with a start, nearly crying out. Glancing about the small room of the inn he and Naruto were staying at he didn't notice anything out of place. It wasn't that late, in fact Naruto hadn't turned in yet and was likely still out in the nearby woods working on some jutsu or another. He couldn't pin it down but somehow he knew that something was horribly wrong. He figured they were at least two days from Konoha. He mused for a moment trying to force the bad feeling away but it wouldn't fade. He made an unusual decision and started packing. He was going to find Naruto and they were heading home, immediately, in the dark.
Late in the evening the next day Naruto and Jiraiya walked around a bend in the road. Naruto smiled in anticipation of finally seeing the village for the first time after almost a full month. It wasn't anywhere near as bad when he had returned several years earlier from his last major training mission with the Toad Sage but he still missed the place fiercely. His stomach rumbled slightly at the thought of soon visiting Ichiraku's for some good ramen for a change. Jiraiya had annoyed him to no end dragging him off with no explanation, setting them off on a forced march home through the night and throughout the entire next day. They were running on soldier pills, which his stomach was not happy about and was now starting to complain. Despite his feelings of unease, Jiraiya smiled at the rumbling sound while Narutos pace increased slightly. They both stumbled to a halt as they saw several pillars of smoke rising up from various points in the village. Looking closer they realized that the entire main gate was gone along with a good section of the wall that had once supported the missing gate.
Naruto and Jiraiya skidded to a stop at the makeshift barrier where the gate used to be. Naruto immediately recognized the chuunin standing guard there, his left arm heavily bandaged. He glanced around and felt the presence of at least two ANBU teams but other than the single shinobi standing guard there was no visible defenders at the gate.
"Udon, what happened?" Naruto practically yelled.
Udon looked up in shock, Naruto and the Toad Sage weren't expected back for another month or two.
"It was the akatsuki, they sent the Yonbi to destroy us." The young man whispered as his eyes fell to the ground.
"The akatsuki have been gone for years though! Damn it we beat them!" Naruto yelled causing Udon to flinch.
Before Naruto could ask any further questions he heard a familiar voice call out his name. He looked up and saw the pink hair of one of his closest friends. He was shocked to see that her right arm was in a cast.
"Sakura?" Naruto was stunned. He never expected to see Sakura in such a state. Even if she managed to break her arm as the cast indicated her own medical jutsu skills should have set it right in short order. He glanced down at the small boy holding her left hand, he looked much like his father Sasuke, except the boy almost always had a smile on his face unlike his father, who never smiled at that age. Naruto remembered that he had just entered the academy a short time ago. That perpetual smile was missing now. Before anything more could be said Jiraiya spoke up.
"Where is Tsunade?" The Toad Sage asked intently.
Naruto looked puzzled, there was an odd edge of fear to his masters voice that he had never heard before.
"I'm sorry." Sakura said softly with a slight shake to her voice as she also looked down to the ground. "She sacrificed herself to save us all, even Sasuke and myself working together were not able to slow the damn thing down much."
There was a sudden wail full of sorrow that caused everyone in the area to stop and look at the shaking Jiraiya as the horrible sound of loss faded from his lips. Before anyone could move towards him there was an odd flash and the Toad Sage was gone.
"Damn!" Naruto yelled out as he fought back his own tears.
"Naruto." Sakura said softly. "Please, let him go for now, the village needs you. You should go see Shikamaru at the Hokage tower."
"Shikamaru? At the Hokage tower? Don't tell me that lazy bastard is going to take the Hokage title." Naruto asked.
"No of course not but he was Tsunades strategic advisor and right now he and Shizune are simply keeping the paperwork flowing. Please, just go and see him, he will explain everything. I've got to get back home and check on Sasuke and the other kids, he took more of a beating than I did and only woke up this morning.
"Naruto" Udon started to say but paused until Naruto tore his gaze away from the receding Sakura. "You have to stop by the hospital too. Konohamaru is there and he isn't doing too well."
"Damn…DAMN!" Naruto growled as he clenched his fist and Udon took a step back as a reddish haze began to emanate from Narutos eyes.
Naruto stood there in mixture of shock, anger and frustration for a moment. He glanced towards the hospital and then to the Hokage tower. He hated hospitals and somehow he knew that seeing Shikamaru was more important than seeing his injured friend.
"Naruto, relax." Sakura said as she gently grabbed his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah I will." He took a deep breath causing the reddish hue in his eye to fade and looked at her arm in the cast. "What's up with the cast? You should be able to patch a simple break pretty quickly."
Sakura blushed slightly. "Not right now, I'm pregnant again."
"Again? Man I'm going to lose track. You guys are really going all out on that whole 'rebuilding the Uchiha clan' thing aren't you? What will this be your fifth?"
"We're hoping for twins again, that would give us six." She said as her blush deepened.
Naruto scowled. This should have been a happy time and despite the cheerfulness he had forced into his voice he still couldn't smile despite the good news from Sakura.
"Well that would be nice I guess. Although that many kids running around is kind of a scary thought."
"That many?" Sakura actually laughed. "I've still got at least ten more years, if not fifteen that I can have children. At the rate we're going we'll have at least fifteen."
"Better you than me." Naruto replied, his eyes widening slightly at the thought of fifteen children.
"Well as I said I've got to get back home." Sakura said, although she frowned slightly at Narutos words.
"Good bye uncle Naruto." The young boy finally spoke as Sakura led him off.
"Later Fuguka-san." Naruto smiled and waved to his friends son.
With his scowl returning and deepening he gave Udon a wave goodbye and hurried off to the tower.
---ooo---
"Man you are a sight for sore eyes. I didn't think I'd ever say that." Shikamaru stated as Naruto walked into the Hokages office.
Naruto looked around, everything was pretty much the same as it was the last time he was here. Except for a couple of extra desks that is. Shikamaru sat behind one and Naruto figured that Shizune was probably using the other.
"Not using Tsunades desk?" The blond shinobi asked his long time friend.
"Of course not! Do you have any idea how troublesome that would be? That desk is the Hokages and I'm just a paper pusher here. Have you talked to anyone yet?"
"Not really, just Udon and Sakura. He only told me about Konohamaru and she pretty much only told me that Tsunade sacrificed herself to save the village and that I had to talk to you."
"O.K. then, where is Jiraiya?"
"He flipped out when Sakura told us about Tsunade and vanished. I was thinking about going to try to look for him but Sakura seemed very insistent that I had to talk to you."
"Hmm, did you know exactly why you were sent off on that last training mission?"
"Just that Tsunade wanted Jiraiya to teach me some of the finer details about nature manipulation when working with multiple elements."
"Well that's not quite true." Shikamaru hesitated as he looked intently at Naruto. "She wanted you out of the village because she was expecting a fight with the village council about you."
"Why would she fight with the…" Narutos voice trailed off as the implication behind Shikamarus words hit him.
"I guess you're not as slow as we always used to tease you about being." Shikamaru smiled but Naruto saw that it was a forced smile. There was something else that was deeply bothering Shikamaru.
"She submitted my name to be the next Hokage." Naruto said quietly.
"Yes she did. Surprisingly enough the whole council didn't immediately flip out. Apparently word had reached even them that you were the most powerful shinobi to ever walk the streets of Konoha. Only Sasuke and Sakura even come close and there's simply no way that they could ever be considered. Well Sakura might have been if she wasn't married to him. It is hard to believe but in a lot of ways many of the villagers and shinobi dislike him more than they ever disliked you. Kakashi's name has been on and off the list many times over the years but he really doesn't want the job."
Naruto stared at Tsunades desk. This wasn't the way this was supposed to happen. She was supposed to be here when he took her job. She was supposed to go on and enjoy her retirement. She had been preparing him for the job for years but he never imagined that she wouldn't be here when it finally happened. He fought back tears as the realization sank in that she wouldn't be able to give him a hard time the way he had always done to her. Until she entered his life he had never had anyone he was able to look to as an older sister or even on rare occasions a mother.
"Naruto!" Shikamaru called out in alarm.
"What!" Naruto growled out in reply as he spun and stared down his old friend.
Shikamaru's heart skipped a few beats as he stared into red eyes with slit pupils. There was the faintest trace of red chakra surrounding Naruto in a thin cloud. He swallowed hard.
"Calm down, you can't lose control if you're going to become Hokage."
Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he reopened them Shikamaru was relieved to see that they had returned to Narutos normal blue.
"You're right." Naruto said with a sigh. "O.k. first things first I guess, if the council is just going to sit on their asses, I'm at least going to start acting like the Hokage while I wait for them. I'm going to need a report on our loses, how many shinobi did we lose, how many are in the hospital and the status of each. Most especially I need to know when each can be expected to return to duty. Also how badly damaged are the physical defenses of the village and how long will emergency repairs take?"
"It's getting late so I'll have the medical reports here tomorrow. The outer perimeter wall is mostly intact. The Yonbi tore through the main gate and we're figuring about a month before it's properly fixed."
"I can wait until tomorrow for the hospital report but it's completely unacceptable to have the main gate in that state for a month. Why aren't there more troops at the gate? I know you've got a few ANBU teams hidden there but that's not enough and it's going to change."
"I know it's unacceptable but Shizune and I have been overwhelmed. Some members of the council have been taking advantage of the confusion to increase their own protection."
"That is going to stop right now if I'm going to be running things." Naruto said.
"Glad you said that." Shikamaru said as he handed Naruto some rolled up documents.
"What's this?" He asked.
"They're for you from Tsunade, she wrote them up just before she took on the four tails. Although she said only to give them to you if you started acting like the boss."
Naruto took the papers, unrolled them and read silently to himself as his eyes began to well up slightly.
'Kid, if you're reading this, then I am gone but the village should be safe. I left a copy of my final decree that leaves you as the acting Hokage, sorry I won't be around to harass you. Initial reports from the first contact ANBU teams state that the Yonbi is approaching. Seems that some of the akatsuki have survived and are a problem again. I wish I had more time but we just got word that the damn demon is close to the gate. We know that they can't have more than eight demons, I'll do my best to make sure that number will be one less to make things easier on you.
Good luck, take care of the village.
Love always,
Tsunade.'
Naruto looked at the second piece with a quick glance. Seeing it was nothing more than an official statement from Tsunade that instated him as the acting Hokage he read the first again, suppressing a mild quaver. He quickly regained control though and turned to Shikamaru.
"What else? Something is bothering you, more so than the attack."
Shikamarus face fell as the false front he had been maintaining fell away for a brief moment.
"The 'Rookie Nine' is now six." He finally said quietly.
'The Rookie Nine' had actually become somewhat famous since the three squads all made it past the first two parts of that chuunin exam all those years ago. As a whole they hadn't become anywhere near as well known as the 'Sannin' or groups such as 'The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist' but in Konoha itself they were practically revered by every genin team that graduated the academy after them.
"What happened?" Naruto answered in a subdued voice.
"Well Chouji, Ino and I were part of the first group that tried to slow the thing down after it destroyed the gate. I couldn't completely paralyze the thing with my shadow possession jutsu but I only slowed it down a bit for a few seconds anyway before it overloaded my jutsu and the backlash knocked me out." Shikamaru paused and looked down in shame. "I was unconscious when they died."
Naruto hesitated, he wanted to reach out but he and Shikamaru had never been close like that. So he simply waited.
"Ino actually attempted to use her Shintenshin no Jutsu on the demon and it destroyed her mind nearly instantly. From what I understand her scream could be heard for miles and two genin who saw her fall are still having nightmares about it. The demons chakra was able to track back to her body through the link in the moments before it dissolved. She had to have a closed casket funeral this morning. Even though she was brain dead and her body was torn up, she might have survived at the hospital as a vegetable but there simply wasn't enough time or personal. Chouji apparently flipped out when he saw that and with me also down he went overboard with his Baika no Jutsu. From what the witnesses saw he actually pushed the Yonbi back for a few seconds before it literally ripped him apart." Shikamaru paused again.
Naruto looked at his friend intently. The third person had to be someone on 'Team 8'. Sakura had mentioned checking on Sasuke so he was still alive. He had one very close friend on Team 8 and he began to feel a sense of dread.
Shikamaru saw the slight edge of unease in Narutos eyes and he forced himself to push his own lose down.
"The last of us 'Rookies' killed was Kiba and Akamaru." Shikamaru paused as he took note of the slight but quickly buried signs of relief in Naruto. "He and Akamaru took out one of the demons eyes using Garuoga but the thing caught them before they could get out of the eye socket and it crushed them both."
There was a brief moment of silence before Narutos stomach rumbled softly and a wave of dizziness passed through him. He fought off the dizziness but was left with a headache.
"Sorry about that, I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday."
"Well get out of here then. No wait, there's one more thing." Shikamaru went to Tsunade's desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a small box. "This belonged to the Fourth and Tsunade-sama wanted you to have it. You should wear it since you are now acting Hokage.
Naruto opened the box to see a red and white bandana. He quietly put it in his pocket.
"Later, I'm going to visit the hospital and check a few things out in the village. I need a copy of all the current squad assignments before I leave though.
Shikamaru went back to his own desk and quickly handed him a bound report.
Naruto quickly left the tower and headed to the hospital. Easily bulling his way past the front desk clerk, despite visiting hours being long over. After getting the info he wanted first of course.
Naruto quietly entered the room and found Moegi sleeping in the chair next to Konohamaru's bed. The small amount of makeup the young woman wore was streaked from her tears. Naruto turned from her to his long time friend and 'rival' and frowned. There didn't seem to be a mark on the young man and there was no sign of any bandages. He walked to the end of the bed and checked the chart and notes. It told him that his friend was in a severe chakra depletion coma.
"Damn." He said softly.
The slight sound was enough to wake Moegi though and her eyes went wide when she saw him standing there.
"Oh, Naruto!" She said as she jumped up and practically flung herself at him.
"Easy there Moegi, what happened?" He said as he pulled away from her.
"He pulled a Tajuu Kage Bunshin jutsu during the attack. He actually was ecstatic for a moment because he had generated a bit more than a hundred clones. He nearly keeled over immediately but the academy was being attacked and he held on long enough to save dozens of students. Once he saw that the students were clear though he collapsed and after Tsunade defeated the demon he was found and brought here."
"Well this is something I can actually help with here." Naruto said softly, causing Moegi's eyes to widen as he reached over and pushed the nurse call button.
Within moments the nurse arrived, obviously surprised to find both Moegi and Naruto in the room.
"You both know that visiting hours are over, you especially Naruto." She said sternly.
"Relax Kaori-san, if it makes it any easier I can easily be here 'officially'." Naruto smiled as Kaori rolled her eyes.
"Please, the only times you've ever been here 'officially' Uzumaki was for us to patch you up. Something we've been doing since around the time you could walk if my memory serves me right. You've always been one of the biggest nuisance patients we've ever had. If you weren't smuggling weapons in, you were escaping, excuse me, I mean 'checking yourself out early' before you were properly healed. The times you weren't here to be patched up you were an even bigger headache. I'm actually stunned that you got this far into the hospital without the whole hospital knowing about it." She sounded rough but she had a soft smile for Naruto that gave lie to her small rant.
"You smuggled weapons into the hospital?" Moegi said as her eyes grew wide again.
"Of course, a shinobi should never be unarmed. That was especially true for me when I was really young, before I was even in the academy and it simply became a habit." He chuckled quietly.
"To this day he was the only four year old that we ever had to take a kunai away from."
"Luckily they didn't find my second one." Naruto said with a wink to Moegi.
"He got even worse once he became an academy student. From then on we had to worry about explosive tags."
"Sounds like your childhood was even more colorful than what you ever led on Naruto." Moegi said.
"Well it was certainly different. Anyway enough of the fond memory stuff, do you have anyone on duty who can handle chakra transfer? I'd like to help Konohamaru here."
Kaori looked thoughtful as she eyed Naruto, looked to Konohamaru and gave Moegi a quick glance.
"Well I could do it and it would help greatly. The entire staff is running on the jagged edge and we've had to hold off on cases like Konohamaru here. He'll most likely be fine in a week or two on his own."
"Going by his chart he's basically unhurt except for the severe chakra depletion. I'm no medical ninja but one thing I've got plenty of is chakra. Besides I need every able bodied ninja on their feet as quickly as possible." Naruto said.
"You need?" Kaori wasn't about to let that one slide.
Naruto simply pulled out Tsunade's decree and let Kaori read it. Well I can't argue with that and I am the senior medical ninja on duty right now so why don't you stand on the other side of the bed and we'll see what we can do."
Naruto stood opposite of Konohamaru and as Kaori put her hands on the comatose young mans chest Naruto covered her hands with his own.
"Done this before I see?" Kaori said and Naruto merely nodded.
He built up his own chakra into his hands to the point where they started to softly glow with a blue light, washing away the even softer green glow emanating from Kaori's hands. Kaori concentrated, pulling softly at first from Narutos chakra and when his chakra didn't waver she pulled a bit more than she normally would using this type of medical jutsu.
"Wha?" Konohamaru whispered as his eyes fluttered open after a few minutes.
"You Sarutobis just don't know when not to push past your limits do you?" Naruto said with a laugh.
"Naruto? What are you doing here? Wait where am I?"
"You're in the hospital." Moegi said as she crowded in close.
"Naruto here just gave up some of his chakra to pull you out of a chakra depletion coma." Kaori said.
"I'll just put you down as owing me one. So Kaori-san when can I expect to see him back on duty?" Narutos grin grew wider.
"He'll most likely have to stay throughout tomorrow just for observation but after that he should be o.k. for light duty over the next week or so." Kaori answered.
"Good, I expect to see you day after tomorrow at the tower then for your duty assignment." Naruto said to Konohamaru.
"See you? What do you mean?" Konohamaru was obviously confused by Narutos words.
Naruto simply smiled more and handed Tsunades decree to Konohamaru. The younger mans eyes lost their cloudiness as they grew wide.
"Better get used to calling me 'Boss' again." Naruto chuckled.
"We should go Naruto, he still needs some real rest. Don't stay too late now Moegi." Kaori said as she tugged on Narutos arm and led him to the door.
"Right then, see you later guys." Naruto gave a wave as he left the room.
"You know you really need some real food." Kaori said as the door closed and they were alone in the hall.
"It can wait. I can easily push myself a lot further. Heck even the hunger headache stopped bothering me. If you're up to it I'd like to see about transferring more of my chakra to any patients or medic nins that could be helped by tapping into my chakra."
"Are you sure?"
"I could order you, if it will make you feel better." Naruto gave her what he thought was his 'charming' smile.
"Well if it was almost anyone else I would still refuse but your chakra levels are truly ridiculous. Even in the state you're in now it won't hurt you and it would be a great help here.
Naruto smiled as Kaori sighed. They spent the next hour or so going from room to room attending to a couple of dozen shinobi. Kaori had the on duty medic nins join them one at a time so they could tap into Narutos incredible reserves. When Naruto stumbled though Kaori called a halt to what they were doing.
"That's enough, even you have your limits. Get out of here and get some real food. Consider it doctors orders, not even your current position can countermand that." Kaori smiled.
"Trust me, real food is on the list." Naruto laughed as his stomach rumbled and Kaori smiled.
"Just make sure it's a short list or better yet put getting some real food at the top of the list."
"Sorry, I've got a couple of more things to check into first." Naruto flinched slightly at the change in expression on Kaori's face. "I won't forget, I promise!"
"O.k. then its time you got out of here." Kaori sighed and gave him a push towards the lobby.
"I'll stop by tomorrow then." Naruto called out as he walked off down the hall and suddenly quiet he headed out of the hospital.
It wasn't long before Naruto stood before the doorway of the Kagetsu clan manor. Although one of the smaller clans in Konoha they were closely related to one of the wealthier families in Fire Country and they held a seat on the council. Naruto had dealt with a good portion of the family that lived outside of the village when he was much younger. Although he liked some of the ones he had met he hadn't been overly impressed with much of them at the time. He wasn't surprised that the segment of the family here in Konoha was one of the clans taking advantage of the current confusion. He glanced around and easily felt the presence of the ANBU team that had been assigned to guard this door. His hands blurred with a few seals and with a simple jutsu he knew that no one was behind the door. He smiled as the 'spy' jutsu faded.
It only took an instant for him to generate a decently powerful Rasengan. His smile got slightly larger as he slammed it into the doorway. The double doors literally exploded into uncountable splinters. He then simply crossed his arms and waited. The four ANBU appeared in a flash, weapons drawn looking obviously confused. Naruto could tell that they were all nervous as they faced him. He had done a brief tour within the ANBU dark ops a few years ago and had earned a great deal of respect among their ranks during that time. Since then not a single member of ANBU would give themselves or any full ANBU team for that matter, good odds if they had to face him.
"What is the meaning of this!" The clan head suddenly appeared, flushed with anger.
Naruto handed him a copy of Tsunade's decree that made him acting Hokage. The mans eyes bugged out as he read the paper. Naruto couldn't tell by looking at their masks but he felt that the ANBU team were all suddenly smiling. They would not have been ANBU if they couldn't read the decree without being seen as the Kagetsu clan head was reading it.
"It is my understanding that you have used the confusion from the aftermath of the Yonbi's attack to requisition an ANBU guard that would be better suited to protecting Konoha." Naruto said with a tone of obviously cold anger in his voice. "Seeing that you no longer have a door that needs to be guarded I am reassigning them."
"But." The clan head started.
"If you are concerned about the rest of your residence I can easily remove it from Konoha for you." Naruto narrowed his eyes as he glared at the clan head before turning to the ANBU captain. "ANBU-san please take your team to the main gate and finish the rest of your shift in whatever capacity the co-coordinator there needs."
"Of course Naruto-sama." The entire ANBU team bowed and vanished.
Naruto turned as he made his eyes shift to the Kyuubi red and returned to glaring at the clan head before continuing quietly. "You would do well to not put your own clans comfort above the security of the village during a time such as this. Even your clan's seat on the council will not protect you from my wrath if anyone in the village gets hurt because your clan is using resources they should not be using during a time like this."
The clan heads mouth opened and closed a few times as if he were a fish out of water. He decided to keep quiet and simply nodded yes to Naruto. The blonde young man turned and leaped leaving the clan head to sigh in relief.
Naruto was stunned beyond belief. It seemed like months had passed since he and Jiraiya had returned to Konoha even though it had only been a few hours. After leaving the Kagetsu manor he had wandered semi-aimlessly through the streets of the village. Word had apparently quickly spread throughout the village and he didn't encounter any more improperly assigned ninja teams. He had a short list that he had checked after the Kagetsu home and he was pleased to see things more like what he thought was appropriate. He was greatly saddened by the scenes of destruction he saw during his 'tour'.
It didn't take long before he unconsciously led himself to Ichiraku's. His stomach kicked into complaining overdrive once the wonderful smell of ramen hit his nose. He had been so stressed the past few hours that despite his stomachs occasional reminders he had continued to completely forget that he had started craving real food before he even got to the now missing main gate of the village.
"Hey old man, I can I start out with a bowl of miso please." Naruto called out as he took a seat.
"Ahh, Naruto it is very good to see you have returned to the village early. You almost missed me, I was going to be closing up soon." Teuchi said with a smile.
Luckily this area of the village had been spared from the attack. Naruto said a silent prayer of thanks that this one long time sanctuary of his was o.k. Despite Teuchi's smile at the sound of Narutos voice the blond ninja knew that to some degree it was forced. There simply had been too much death and destruction for any true smiles. Naruto suddenly panicked when he realized that Ayame wasn't around.
"Hey Teuchi-sama." Naruto paused for a moment as his old friend turned around. "Is Ayame-san o.k.?"
The look of relief on the old mans face was enough to set Narutos mind at ease, maybe there were a few true smiles after all.
"She's fine Naruto, just out on a delivery."
"That's good." Naruto became quiet as he slowly began to eat his ramen.
This was a first for him, never before had he been brought so low that not even ramen could lift his spirits, even if just a little bit. He was lost in his thoughts when a soft familiar voice spoke his name behind him.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Hey Hinata. It's good to see that you're o.k. I'm really sorry about Kiba. How did your family make out during the attack?" Naruto replied softly as he turned and saw one of his closest friends.
"Thank you, Shino is actually taking losing Kiba worse than I am. Kiba was the closest Shino had to any siblings. As for my family, we did o.k., no lives lost and only a few in the hospital."
There was an odd silence between the two of them for a moment. For many others it would have been awkward but they had slowly been developing a close and yet oddly distant relationship over the past several years. Hinata thought back over the years of their relationship. For many years she had semi-secretly been more than somewhat obsessed with the blond ninja. Things between them were tense when he finally figured out that she was attracted to him but their friendship grew despite that awkward and thankfully short time. Although to her great disappointment, only their friendship grew. Her obsessive feelings had gotten a little overly excited when Sakura and Sasuke got married but Naruto continued to ignore Hinatas subtle overtures.
Although truth to be told, she didn't like the idea of being some sort of consolation prize for him because Sakura was no longer available. For months after the Uchiha-Harano marriage though, Hinata was baffled that Naruto still flirted furiously with the pink haired kunoichi. In fact he seemed to flirt even more with her after her marriage than he did when she was single. Oddly enough Sasuke wasn't bothered by it at all. For a brief time the rumor mill had the three of them pegged as having some sort of shared relationship. Sasuke had been the one to put an end to those rumors, he hadn't even used any violence either, much to many peoples surprise. He had simply laughed, long and loudly when someone had finally approached him about Narutos behavior towards his wife. When he had finally stopped laughing he said something along the lines that Naruto was such an idiot he didn't really know that Sakura was married, despite being Sasuke's best man. The mere sight of Sasuke laughing had actually shaken quite a few of the people who witnessed the incident. Which of course helped spread word about it and finally killed the 'threesome rumor'
It took a good deal of sake a couple of years after Sakura and Sasuke's marriage one time that Hinata actually managed to finagle a night alone with Naruto. Part of her was secretly hoping to seduce him even then, although she knew deep in her heart that it wouldn't work. It took many hours and many, many bottles of sake, Hinata had been stunned at the time with how much alcohol Naruto could consume, but after a lot of side tracked conversation he finally admitted something she had never expected. Her long time obsessive crush had no intention of ever dating anyone. In fact he hadn't seriously considered Sakura as anything more than a friend since they were fifteen, roughly a decade ago.
Hinata was troubled for many months after finding out that the only reason why he had flirted so much with the pink haired kunoichi was because he believed that she would always say no as long as there was the slightest chance she could have Sasuke. Sakura was in a bizarre way something of a safety valve for the hyper active blond. Now that she was married he could endlessly flirt with her and never worry that she would take any of it seriously. Sakura herself had long ago decided his flirting was harmless and she gotten into the habit of simply ignoring him completely. Granted Naruto earned himself a great many bruises and minor injuries at Sakuras hands before she came to that conclusion.
By that time that drunken night happened all of his friends had known about the Kyuubi for several years. Hinata though was sure that she was the only one that knew that the exact reason why Naruto wouldn't date anyone was because of the Kyuubi. She figured that Sakura and Sasuke must have understood but she thought that Naruto hadn't told them and they didn't know for sure. He had hurt Sakura once during a mission when the damn fox had taken partial control of him. The scars on her arm were for all intents and purposes invisible, to anyone without the Byakugan anyway. Out of curiosity, Hinata had once looked and seen the faint traces of them. It had taken a few months after that mission that he had hurt Sakura on before he himself realized that deep down he wouldn't allow any woman to get close to him. After hearing him drunkenly explain all of that, from that drunken night on, Hinatas crush started to slowly fade away. She was deeply saddened as she helped him stumble home and that night was when she really became one of his closest friends, if not the closest. Even if neither of them realized it at the time. After that she continued to simply be a close friend to him and nothing more. Over the years they had actually gotten much closer than either wanted to admit, publicly anyway. As long as she never even hinted at anything remotely romantic between the two of them anyway. The one time she had, he had become instantly distant and that was the end of that.
One thing she found even odder was that as her romantic feelings for Naruto faded away she didn't have any real interest in dating anyone else herself. She expected that in due time her family would begin pressuring her to have children of her own to do her part to continue the Byakugan line but she simply had no interest to start dating. With the changes in the whole main and branch family structure of the Hyuga clan though, even that pressure wouldn't be too great any time soon. Hinata sometimes wondered if she had somehow destroyed that desire within herself by focusing so much on Naruto, it was almost as if without him something within her had withered and died.
She looked her long time friend over and sighed mentally. She had never seen him so quiet. She reached out and softly put her hand on his shoulder. Despite all the years of becoming one of his best friends he still tensed up for a brief fraction of a second at her touch.
"So Shino isn't taking Kiba's death well? I really am sorry, I should have been here." Naruto said and Hinata felt a brief, intense flare of anger buried deep within him. "Kiba didn't have a girlfriend or anything did he?"
"No, nothing serious anyway. He certainly dated a lot of girls though."
"I used to think that you two would hook up one day." Naruto said softly.
Hinata hesitated. It was a common belief, if not her and Kiba, then it was her and Shino people would wonder about. Until Shino had married a younger kunoichi himself anyway.
"Naruto." She paused again. "Much like yourself I don't really want to date anyone."
"I'm sorry Hinata, I really hope it's no longer because of me. I just wish you would find someone or at least open up to the idea of looking. This is one path I don't want to share with anyone, especially any of my friends."
"Maybe someday." She said. "We should change the subject, we've already talked about this dozens of times or I should say you've told me that dozens of times. Tell me about your meeting with Shikamaru." She said as she released his shoulder and sat down giving a quiet signal to Teuchi.
Teuchi frowned slightly at their interplay. They had both become long time favored customers of his and even though he had no real idea why they both decided to remain alone in life he didn't give them a hard time about it despite wanting to. His daughter also especially favored the idea of these two customers becoming a couple but despite their obvious close friendship, there had never any outward sign of romance of any sort, not since the very first days she had started coming here with him anyway, all those many years ago. They were here often enough together that Hinata was often able to place an order without saying anything as she just did. Usually whenever Naruto was eating miso she would order the same. Teuchi had been able to tell what she wanted by which small signal she gave for several years now.
"They're discussing making me the next Hokage." He answered quietly.
"I had heard." She replied after a short pause, she could sense that he was incredibly unhappy about finally having his long time goal within his grasp.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this." He muttered practically to himself as he pulled out Tsunades decree and handed it to Hinata. "She was supposed to be retiring soon."
Hinata took the paper and quickly looked it over, her eyes widening. "This says that you are the acting Hokage now. I didn't know about this."
"It was pretty much Tsunades last decree, I've already started doing some 'Hokage' type stuff since I left the tower. Actually that reminds me. Although Shikamaru wanted me to do this before I left the tower I wanted to walk around one last time and see the village before it becomes widely known."
Naruto took his leaf emblem hitai-ate off and pulled out a piece of red and white cloth. He tied the cloth around his head, covering his forehead. It took the exact position of where his hitai-ate once rested, only instead of the leaf emblem it sported the kanji for fire.
"Supposedly the fourth wore this during the time after the Sandaime appointed him to become the fourth and before the council confirmed him as the Yondaime." Naruto said solemnly.
He glanced at his hitai-ate and grinned slightly before he tied it around his neck, much like Hinata's. He gave her a half hearted smile at the new similarity between them.
"I don't remember ever hearing that he wore anything like that Naruto." Hinata said as she smiled back at him.
"Yeah well he probably only wore it for an hour or two, the council was overjoyed with the idea of him being Hokage. With me they'll probably argue for a month or two, if not longer." Naruto sighed softly as he thought about the arguments he was likely going to be involved with in the near future.
"Surely if they all knew that the Fourth was…" Hinata started before Naruto cut her off.
"That's not common knowledge to this day and you know it."
"Yes I do but you should not be so willing to put it aside and ignore it either. I know you want to earn the title on your own merits. Just keep in mind that your own merits mean nothing to some on the council no matter how outstanding, pure, noble and all that those merits are. Some of them will never see past the fox inside of you, if those ones specifically find out about the Fourth that could make a big difference. You should not accept the curse the Fourth saddled you with and then not take advantage of what he is to you."
Naruto looked at her quietly. With most people he'd continue to argue but over the years he'd seen that whenever she spoke like this Hinata was pretty much always right.
"I'll think about it." He finally said as he looked down.
"Well also keep in mind that you do have many allies on the council as well."
"Really?" He looked up in surprise.
"Of course, if you didn't, do you think they'd still be arguing?"
"I figured that had more to do with Sasuke being so stubborn."
"Sasuke's position on the council is still considered dubious by most, even among some of your supporters. Tsunade-sama may have forgiven him and given him a full pardon but many will never trust him. With you, the only ones that still look down on you because of the fox are generally the ones who are less intelligent. Everyone who knows about the fox knows that you had nothing to do with it. Sasuke on the other hand left the village of his own free will. Even if he did wind up killing both Orochimaru and Itachi many will never trust him. The taint of willingly associating with Orochimaru may never fade and after Itachi, many will never trust any Uchiha."
"So if it isn't Sasuke tying up everything in the council about my appointment, I wonder who it is."
"Would you believe, your biggest supporter is actually my father." Hinata laughed as Narutos eyes grew wide.
"Your father? I thought he hated me."
"He's like that. He's actually been quite impressed with you ever since you beat Neji during that chuunin exam years ago. He'd likely never admit it but I'm pretty sure he feels very grateful to you since he holds you responsible for reconciling his relationship with Neji and easing the tension between the main and branch families."
They both had a lot on their minds so they grew quiet as they ate. By the time Hinata finished her bowl of ramen, Naruto had wolfed down two additional bowls. He would have ordered more but Ayame had returned, giving Naruto and Hinata a big smile and Teuchi had run out of broth. Being late Naruto figured a few cups of instant ramen back home would top him off, instead of asking Teuchi to whip up a fresh batch of broth.
"Naruto…" Hinata paused for a moment as she looked at her long time friend. "Please take care, you have a lot ahead of you."
"Of course, you do the same. Are you sure that you don't want me to walk you home?"
"I'll be fine, you should go home and get some rest." She gave a small forced chuckle.
"Hmph, I think it would be a good idea to talk to you father though."
"Naruto it's late, it can wait until tomorrow. Besides the council discussion regarding you was rather heated today and they're taking the next few days off. You have plenty of time to speak to my father before the council meets again."
"If you say so." He said only half convinced.
"I do, now have a good night." She gave a short wave and quickly faded into the distance.
Naruto stood there for a few moments watching her walk away and for the first time in a long time he felt a small pang of regret that he quickly suppressed and forced himself to ignore before he turned and headed home.
A/N - don't worry I will be going back to the Yonbi's attack on the village in chapter 2.