Author's note: Based off of something I've been working on. I'm thinking about just keeping this for the main storyline, though... Naruto is Hokage by this time. Disclaimers apply.

Ownership

It took about five months before Sasuke decided that something was going on. Still, he wasn't sure if he should ask, given how hard Naruto seemed to be trying to cover it up. In any case, his suspicions were confirmed when Neji merely paused after his report, then plunged into his description of how well the Heir was doing in Hyuuga family politics.

No matter how close Sasuke may be to the Hokage, there were many things that he shouldn't have been able to know.

At first he thought Naruto was being lazy or careless when he first stopped him from leaving the room as people came in to turn in their reports. Then he was just irritated when he laughed off Sasuke's snide remarks about how he should get Naruto a secretary for his birthday.

But now... this was so careless, it seemed almost deliberate. It made Sasuke stop before he asked Naruto about it for a third time.

It was too convenient. By now everyone was so used to Sasuke being around in time to hear all the top-rated mission reports that even though it wasn't regulations, they waived it off as the Hokage's personal rule. After all, it wasn't as if he did it for Sakura as well, so they couldn't exactly claim team favoritism.

Naruto already had an assistant, but somehow, Sasuke always knew more of what was going on than Konohamaru did, even though Sasuke didn't want to know about social events that he avoided like festivals and the Academy classes that Naruto would drop in on as guest speaker. It just didn't make sense.

But there wasn't anything wrong. No famine, plague, or even ninja war in progress. Still, that didn't mean that there wasn't anything going on.

Could he have just not been told, even after all these things that he shouldn't have been able to hear anyway? Sasuke didn't know, but he wasn't sure who he should ask. Sakura? She might not be able to answer him, and if it went as deep as he thought it might, he couldn't ask her without first making sure that no eyes or ears were on them. And that, he knew from experience, wasn't something you did lightly. People thought the worst when they knew there were secrets being kept.

And Naruto had taken pains to ensure that this one stayed unsuspected.

There was only one way to do this.
Only one sure method to get the answer he was looking for without prying eyes seeing.

He quickly jotted down a message in a special code that Sakura had specially developed for them, based off of Nauro's atrocious spelling and handwriting. It was the only code that Kakashi had never been able to fully understand and Shikamaru had proclaimed too troublesome to ever bother with. The message went something like this:

Ay ()wz3rz j00, l)ob3.

1!1

Note: No, I am not fluent in L33t.