*****

Naruto looked at the clock on the wall. 11:15 AM. Dang it, there goes practice... Oh well, at least I have lunch to look forward to. We're almost done anyway. It had been three hours, lot's of talk about just about everything but what he and Sakura were there for. Talks about raising wages, adding new buildings elsewhere, questioning of Tsunade's abilities from Danzo, to which Naruto and Sakura took care of quite quickly. That moron, he has no clue what kind of crap she has to put up with. I swear, why haven't we kicked him out of the village yet?

"So, Sakura," asked Tsunade, "how's the work on the medical facilities going?"

"Quite well, actually. Construction on the buildings has finished, now the only thing left is getting the equipment for the hospital and getting the rest of the information from the sand village. Other than that, not too much to say, other than we should be done in a couple of weeks."

Wow, Naruto thought, that was pretty fast, you'd think that we'd still have a month to go on that. Then again, the sand village has been pretty helpful.

"Any questions for Sakura?" Tsunade asked the rest of the panel, twenty in all. "No? Good, then we'll move on to our last piece of business, Naruto, how are we doing on the rest of the central square?"

"Well," Naruto spoke, "as you can see, we've got this building all finished, with construction done on all but a couple of buildings, both part of the academy, so we don't need to freak out about it, they can still meet outside for now. Besides, it allows them to be in the environment that they'll get used to for a while. As for the inside, we've got four more buildings to furnish, but again, they're the less important buildings, all of our necessary buildings are done. Not that the academy buildings aren't important, but we need to focus on protecting the village, I'm sure you all agree with me on this, right?"

There were no objections to Naruto's thoughts. "Anything else, Naruto?"

"No ma'am, that's all."

"Good. Well then, meeting adjourned. Except for you two." Tsunade pointed at Naruto and Sakura. "I need to speak with you two about something." There was a bit of frustration in her voice.

Oh crap, Naruto thought, If this is about Danzo, I'm gonna be really pissed, I finally got Sakura to go out with me, and we're stuck here dealing with a blasted traitor!

"Naruto, Sakura, what was the meaning of that outburst at Danzo?" She had a good frown on her face. Danzo was one of the elders, and was supposed to have their respect.

"With all due respect, Lady fifth," Sakura said, "Danzo was questioning your ability to serve as Hoakge!"

"And is he not entitled to his opinion?"

"Yes, but-"

"But what, Sakura? We have to let him have a voice, people agree with him, whether we like it or not."

"But Grandma Tsunade," Naruto interjected, "this is the same scum that tried to take you down while Pain stomped the village into the ground!"

"There's not enough evidence to prove this, Naruto. And even if there were, it's better for him to be out in the open, that way we can keep an eye on what he's doing."

"True, true.."

Tsunade took a pause. Time to change the subject."So, what do you think of the job, not what you expected, right?"

"Pretty much. I'm not so sure that Hokage is what I want to do anymore..."

"You're just like Jiryah was... Well, we'll see. Don't worry, it isn't all paperwork like that, I just wanted you to get a taste of the boring part. What, you thought it would be all fun and games?"

"Good point."

"Well, it's about lunch time, I'd better let you two go then. Where you headed off to?"

"Well, Sakura and I were going to go get some ramen."

"Whoa there, did I hear that right, Sakura?"

"Yes," Sakura replied, "you heard right, but it's nothing like that."

"It isn't?" Naruto asked Sakura, eyebrow raised.

"Of course not!"

"Oh, okay." Naruto laughed. "No, I knew that already. But hey, you never know!"

Hmm... Tsunade thought, Does Sakura really mean that? It doesn't look like that's the case. There's something in her eyes when she's around that boy. Naruto's got it pretty good, but something doesn't look right about him... Knowing Sakura, she's already brought it up, I'd better not, she can handle this.

"Well then, you two have a good time, you've got the rest of the day off, so relax. Naruto, don't go training today, save your strength for tomorrow, we've got a little mission for you two. You may like this one."

"Hey, why are you calling me out?"

"Simple, because Sakura actually takes days off."

"Oh, right..."

Tsunade pulled Sakura aside for a moment, then whispered into her ear, "Sakura, keep an eye on Naruto, something's up, I can tell."

"I know," she whispered back, "I'll fill you in later." Naruto, she thought, what are these bad dreams about? It's gotta be something big... Sasuke, or is it something else... Something worse?

*****

The leader stood just outside of the gates, he was dressed as a simple traveler, he brought no Kunai, no radios, no paper, simply himself and the clothes on his back. He got in no problem, he was a no name in the world of espionage, but that was good: it meant you were one of the best. No fake aliases, no criminal record, just a regular upstanding citizen that happened to be practicing in illegal activity. He was the one they called the shadow, and he was good at this job.

Now... where would I find this Naruto Uzumaki? Ah, now he remembered, it was lunch time. Last he checked, Uzumaki was a teenager, and where else would he be for lunch other than a Ramen bar? Simple, nowhere. This is why Uchiha hired him, because he blended in. This is what a true ninja sought to be able to do. Now.... Where is that bloody ramen bar again?

*****

"So," Sakura asked, "what happened last night?" They were at the ramen bar, Ichiaku's place was one of the ones that somehow managed to be located in the right place, as it was far away from the area that was wasted.

"I already told you, nothing, just a bad dream." replied Naruto. He took a swig from his drink, "Why are you so insistent on this?"

"Because, Naruto, I know you better. You try to keep what you're feeling inside, it's not good. I should know, I still do that too..."

Naruto sighed. "It's not that simple, Sakura. I don't want pity from anyone. Not even you, especially not from you."

"It's not pity, it's concern. I don't see the Naruto everyone else sees, or even the one you think you are. What I see is the real Naruto, the one that's always trying to look at the bright side of things, the one that's determined, the one that will stop at nothing to do anything for his friends. But what I also see is that you're hurting. That dream you had, what was it about?"

Naruto looked down, whatever smile he had had when they first got here had completely faded away. He looked up at Sakura, "I dreamed about the fight with Sasuke. When he knocked me out, three years ago. But it was different. It wasn't the same conversation we'd had before. It was more like when we'd last seen him, when he said he'd kill me on a whim. But it wasn't like that time either..." He took some of his ramen and ate it, wiped his mouth, then said, "Sakura... I... Well... Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I think I do." She took a sip from her drink, "It sounds like it's just a nightmare, what you need," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "is to cheer up a little. Try not to worry about it, it's probably nothing, just stress. I know you've been under pressure lately, being the new sage and all."

"I guess I didn't think about that..." Naruto scratched his head Is it really that simple? Maybe... She knows more about this than I do, that's for sure. "Thanks, Sakura." They proceeded finishing their lunch, chatted a bit, then left for their day of relaxation. Meanwhile, a man on the far side of the bench paid for his meal then left as unnoticed as he had appeared.

*****