Naruto could hardly sleep after yelling at Boruto. Not only did he not see the boy come back in after the incident, Hinata barely talked to him when she finally came to bed. Instead, she got dressed, brushed her hair and teeth and climbed right into bed without so much as a peep in his direction. He doubted that she thought he was asleep, despite not saying anything. Although that hardly mattered when he knew that she was probably cross that he yelled at their son. But she just got into bed, read a book and didn't say anything. He vaguely remembered Jiraiya telling him that great couples don't have to say anything, their communication and bond is so good. This was probably not one of those situations. He knew she was angry with him.

That didn't mean he couldn't do anything. In the back of his mind, he hoped that he could rescue the situation and get back in Hinata's good graces. But he was also deeply concerned that he'd done far too much harm to earn it. He hadn't apologized to Boruto, after all, and it had hurt him as much as it hurt his son. He had heard Boruto wailing loudly about an hour after he got back, and he wanted him to stop. It was all his fault, of course. He knew it.

Still, it was better to try something than do nothing.

Pretending wake up, he turned to Hinata on his left. She was still sewing. "I knew you were awake," she said coldly. "Why did you yell at my son?"

He didn't have a reason or an excuse. So he didn't answer.

Wait, her son? Okay, it was certainly true. But her voice sounded possessive, and again, for good reason, but it sounded accusatory like she believed he didn't regret it and irrevocably hated Boruto.

"I don't hate him," he answered.

"Did I say that?" she asked.

"No," he replied.

"There where did you get that from?"

"I dunno."

"You need to apologize to him."

"I don't think he's ready."

She stopped, although Naruto doubted that she was done with the conversation. She might just be giving him the silent treatment. There wasn't much he could do in this case except wait for her to decide to talk to him again. But she didn't speak for several long, agonizing minutes. The only sound that came from her side of the bed was the clicking and clacking of her sewing needles. At times they could sound like a clock ticking.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," she said. "I shouldn't speak out of place. It's not for me to do."

Surprised by this, although she'd done it before, he turned to stare at her. She kept knitting, humming a light melody. This didn't sit well with Naruto.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," he said. "I'll try to make it up to him tomorrow. I'll take him to Ichiraku's."

"Don't worry about it," she said.

This wasn't right and Naruto knew it. For now he was too tired to keep the conversation going, and he quickly fell asleep.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

He was young again; not just young, but his age when he, Sakura and Sasuke defeated Madara and saved everyone from the nightmare that was the Infinite Tsukiyomi. In fact, they were just about to do battle with Kaguya in her Truth Ball form. They were truly reunited after almost four years separate in some shape or form. He could feel his heart pounding against its to cage, feeling as ready to go as he was. He knew they could get the job done. Even if his wariness of Sasuke was justified to an extent, there was no one else he trusted to fight alongside in the clutch. "You ready, guys!?" he shouted.

No answer.

Great dread overtook him. Sasuke was gone. Sakura floated lifelessly in front of him, except her eyes. They were fixed on him. He looked around. Jiraiya, Tsunade, Iruka-sensei, Minato and Kushina all surrounded him, each sharing Sakura's lifelessness and eyes staring right at him. Those eyes followed where he went.

Then, hundreds of White Zetsus marched past him in formation, their eyes fixed dead ahead. Dolls and puppets joined them. Their faces morphed, turning into different people. They all shared the same, lifeless expression as the five currently confronting Naruto. Fear and dread began to fill him. The endlessly marching puppets changed again, turning into real people this time. His horror worsened. He recognized some of them; Haku, Zabuza, Neji, Itachi, some others that he could not recognize either. Their steady, lifeless march chilled his bones.

The marchers turned their heads to him. He looked away. He saw he was his current age now, dressed as the Hokage. His face glistened with cold sweat. The marchers had stopped marching. Now they turned to face him. More people joined them. He turned to run, but he was surrounded on all sides. They didn't say anything, but their deafening silence caused him to drop to his knees and cover his head. He tried begging for forgiveness. But he said nothing. He tried again. He looked up. He turned white as chalk.

Everyone, even the first five, and Sasuke, now closed in on him. He had nowhere to run. They mobbed him, swirling him around like he was in a whirlpool. He reached for the black sky, silently screaming for help, but none came. He sank deeper and deeper. Now Boruto and Himawari had joined the mob. And to his horror, Hinata appeared before him. But instead of helping him, she watched as the massive, endless mob consumed him until he was nothing.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

He woke up covered in sweat. Although he didn't vault upright at first, he did so on his own. He tried to remember certain details of the dream before he forgot it, like the endless marching dead. But it was still pretty dark, so he was going to have to find a pen and paper without waking Hinata up. He remembered the candle on the desk opposite the bed, so he got up and moved over to the desk. He lit the candle, got out a piece of paper and started writing down what he remembered. Now, he wasn't entirely sure why he felt like he needed to do this, just that he had to.

He quickly finished. It was still the Hour of the Ox. He folded the paper up, put it in his Hokage cloak, blew the candle out and gently got back into bed. Hinata was still fast asleep. He did kiss her forehead, but it felt like routine, not actual affection. That being said, he quickly fell asleep himself.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

He dreamed again, but this time it was just a bunch of random images that he immediately forgot 30 seconds after waking up. He was relieved to know this, as normal dreams were getting rare. Or at least felt rare.

He'd settled into his simple morning routine a couple of years ago. First he got up, then he bathed, then he got dressed and then he had breakfast.

Breakfast was, as you can probably guess, really awkward.

He sat next from Boruto at the table, Hinata across from him and Himawari to his right. Boruto did everything he could to not look at his father, like turning away with his soup bowl so that he'd be looking at his mom instead. Naruto deduced he thought he had his mom as an ally. It was his usual tactic, and he employed it often. Especially when he was quite obviously terrified of his father, for good reason. Yes, yelling at Boruto was still eating at Naruto. He was going to apologize. But he needed to get his attention first.

"Could you pass the rice, Boruto?" he asked.

Boruto passed the rice, but didn't look at him. Okay, then.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

Boruto ignored him.

"Do you want to talk?"

Without warning, or perhaps, with some warning if you count how he gave his father the cold shoulder, Boruto got up from the table, picked up his bag, went straight for the door and bolted outside right as Naruto caught on to his actions. Instead of chasing him, Naruto stood in the door frame, watching Boruto getting smaller and smaller until he was out of sight. The Hokage sighed and cursed himself for letting him go.

"Daddy, what happened?" Himawari asked. "Why was big brother so scared?"

"Because I did something wrong," he answered. "I guess now that Boruto's gone off, I should be going myself."

"Take care," Hinata replied. Naruto grabbed his Hokage cloak and hat, and was soon on his way to his office.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Sakura did not have anywhere near the kind of sleep Naruto had, although she did heavily cry when she got to bed. Her guilt for downing three gulps of sake was palpable. So palpable, in fact, that she also had some bad dreams.

She remembered drifting around the village, encountering injured people throwing angrier glares at her wherever she went. People were poisoned, suffering from kunai wounds, losing limbs, getting sick, and dying of other maladies that she knew that she could heal. But she couldn't do anything. She tried to help, but no matter what she did, she kept giving them something worse; Sasuke's curse mark and a sharingan. Or they simply didn't heal.

She couldn't bear it anymore. That was when she woke up, and immediately regretted it, because the pounding headache of a hangover struck. Using a special jutsu that she picked up from watching Tsunade, she relieved her headache, but that probably wouldn't help the light sensitivity. Or her embarrassment when Sarada saw her again.

So she got out of bed and rounded up all the sake in the house, which turned out to be 3 bottles plus ceremonial sake, and poured all of it besides the ceremonial sake down the drain. Her timing was also good, because Sarada happened to walk in as she was finishing up with the second sake bottle. She looked visibly disappointed at first, but seeing her mom dumping the sake instantly cheered her up.

"Are you seriously doing that?"

"Yeah," Sakura answered.

"Why?"

"Because I know I'm better than this," Sakura answered back.

"And then what?"

Sarada's innocent question went unanswered. Not because Sakura didn't want to answer, but because she couldn't answer. She stayed still above the sink, thinking about what would come next, and—

"Mom? What's this?"

Sakura spun around. Sarada was visibly shaken and shaking, holding a piece of paper in her hand. Sakura's eyes widened, and horror spread on her face. Desperately, she reached and grabbed the paper out of Sarada's hand, but she didn't toss it. Still, the damage was done. Sarada had seen something, and Sakura feared the worst. She had to get her out of the house as soon as possible, without worsening Sarada's suspicions.

"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked.

"Just some toast," Sarada answered, although Sakura was positive this wouldn't be the end of it. She knew she could only delay it a little bit until she could find a solution. She would also have to make Sarada's lunch, and that might take some time. She was up to the challenge, of course, so long as she could keep her daughter's attention away from the bills for now. (As for why Sarada didn't notice them last night, the simplest answer was because Sarada was so focused on her mother. But she also might've just waited for her to get up to confront her on the bills.)

She hid the bills while Sarada wasn't looking, while making breakfast and lunch at the same time. She walked a tight rope, though. A wrong move could catch Sarada's eye, or Sarada would catch a glimpse of the paperwork. The toast was made quickly, but the bento box would take time. And as Sakura found out, making a bento with a hangover was harder than it should be, even without the headache.

At last though, the bento was ready, and Sarada was out the door, holding her toast in her mouth. Luckily, she would not be late for lessons today.

She took them back out to look them over. She could imagine those papers laughing at her.

In the end, she couldn't figure out how her life had gone so wrong. All she knew was that she needed to get it back together.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Sarada had no trouble getting to the Academy campus with plenty of time to spare before classes started. More importantly, she was on time to find Boruto sitting against a tree, sulking. Something had gone wrong, Sarada could tell. And it must have been pretty bad.

"Uh, hey, Boruto," she said nervously. "Did something happen?"

"No," Boruto snapped. "I just feel like sittin' here!"

"You're crying," Sarada answered.

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yes-huh. Quit cryin' like that, you're embarrasin' me!"

"Hey, SHUT UP!" Boruto shouted while standing up to confront his teammate.

"Well there's the Boruto I remember," Sarada flatly remarked. "Something's going on at home, isn't it?"

"No!" Boruto pretended to scoff, like he was hiding something.

"You liar," Sarada scoffed. "If you're going to cry, then just admit it!"

"I'm not—I'm not—AAAAHHHH!" Whatever dam that Boruto was trying to hold burst, and the crying came like a wave. It was loud and inelegant, and caught other students' attentions as they walked past them. Sarada didn't react so much. She wasn't embarrassed for him, but maybe a little embarrassed by him, although it was strangely satisfying to see him knocked down a couple of pegs for all his annoying boasting. Her mom told her that his father was like that when they were their age, too, although the Hokage's boasting came from a massive inferiority complex and need to be recognized. And then it suddenly occurred to her that Boruto might be dealing with something similar. If his constant insults of his own father were anything to go by.

"Something happened with your dad, right?" she asked.

"My dad—*SNIFF*—my dad yelled at me," he answered in between sniffles.

"Wait—what!?" she stammered. "What happened!?"

Boruto told her about what happened after they dispersed from Sensei Kohonamaru's lessons, and the new jutsu he wanted to try out. He'd walked in on his father going to bed, and then Naruto yelled at him.

Listening intently, Sarada actually felt pretty bad for the kid. From what it sounded like, the Hokage had really blown his top. "Wow, um, I'm really sorry," she said softly.

"Stupid old man," Boruto sniffled. "I don't wanna be Hokage, anyway!"

"I know, you've only said it like a million times," Sarada quipped. "Lucky for you. I caught my mom getting drunk last night."

"Really!?" Boruto scoffed. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing's wrong with her, you're just a spoiled brat!" Sarada shouted, getting defensive.

"SHUT UP!"

"MAKE ME!"

"Both of you need to shut up."

They'd been so engrossed in their argument that they didn't catch Mitsuki sneaking up on them. Both jumped, but recovered quickly enough to get angry with him.

"DON'T DO THAT, MITSUKI!" Boruto shouted, his eyes turning white.

"What were you arguing about?" Mitsuki asked.

"The village of Nunya," said Boruto.

"Nunya?"

"None o' your business!"

"Don't listen to him, he's stupid," said Sarada. "His dad yelled at him."

"Too bad," said Mitsuki.

"Well, he was pretty hurt by it," said Sarada. "Maybe you could go a little easier on him?"

"Oh," Mitsuki said, followed by hugging Boruto. "Sorry."

"Thanks," said Boruto.

"We should be going," said Sarada. "Sensei Konohamaru's probably getting impatient."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Naruto hated paperwork. But paperwork was 99% of the Hokage job, and no matter how much he could suck it up, he had to do it.

The papers strewn about his desk seemed to laugh at him, like they'd been doing for over a decade now. It was getting quite irritating. Actually more than irritating, it was downright harassment at this point. He couldn't really ask Shikamaru for a lot of help either, since his assistant was off on a little errand in the village.

Bills about counterfeiting, punishing Missing-Nin, usual personnel movements, new regulations, blah, blah, blah. It was all so monotonous, but he robotically filled it all out, not missing a single detail. The village government depended on an efficient bureaucracy embodying the Will of Fire, and he put that fiery passion to use, pouring his energy into the work. He could get more done using the Shadow Clones, which he'd already summoned to do some menial tasks around the office. One had already ran past his office carrying cleaning supplies.

Then another packet of paperwork plopped on his desk, catching him off guard, but only for about a second. Looking up, he sighed and smiled.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he announced.

"How's it going?" Kakashi asked, nonchalantly raising his hand. "ANBU was going to deliver this to you, but I volunteered to deliver it."

"Thanks."

The Hokage flipped through the report. It mentioned something about some missing-nin hell-bent on attacking the village. But they had a window of opportunity to disrupt the plot. They also didn't need to send an elite squad. A genin squad should do the trick.

But Naruto wasn't going to take a chance. "I'm going to tell ANBU to strike on their own accord," he said. "I was thinking of Team Kohonamaru, but I have a better idea for them."

"Another training mission?" Kakashi asked.

"Maybe," said Naruto. "You know… I felt kind of guilty for thinking of them. Whatever, can you call them in?"

"Sure," said Kakashi. He turned to leave.

As Kakashi turned to leave, Naruto reached into his hokage robes and pulled the paper out. Momentarily hesitating, Naruto wondered if it was a good idea to mention it to Kakashi-sensei. He learned a lot from Kakashi, even if he could be rather cynical at times. But he remembered the bell test, leading him, Sakura and Sasuke on their first mission, the reunion… so many memories that he felt an unwanted nostalgic pang, yearning to relieve his youth, and a single tear ran down his cheek. He knew he could trust Kakashi-sensei. He was one of his most important teachers and confidants.

"Actually, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about," he said. "I had a dream last night."

"So did I," said Kakashi. "But you don't see me talking about it."

"That's not it," Naruto replied. "Just… listen to me, please."

So he told Kakashi about the dream, reading off the paper. By the end, Kakashi looked like he was deep in thought, and Naruto wished he had a mind-reading jutsu.

"You're not going to like what I say," he said. "But you're not happy with your marriage."

"Wait, what?" Naruto sputtered. "Of course I'm happy!"

"Can you prove it? Why do you love Hinata?"

"She played with me when we were kids?"

"That was nice of her," Kakashi admitted. "But how long did that last?"

Naruto hesitated. "I don't know. I forgot about her after a while. Where are you going with this?"

"Not very far," said Kakashi. "You should probably figure this out for yourself."

"You're no help, Kakashi-sensei."

"I'm not supposed to get your life in order for you," Kakashi replied. "That's your job." He turned and departed. "If you need any more help on things besides your messed-up home life, I'm always on call."

Naruto wasn't angry nor infuriated, but he was certainly frustrated that his mentor wouldn't do much to help him.

But he didn't have much time to dwell on it. Konohamaru walked into his office shortly after Kakashi, and the rest of his team followed suit. Boruto kept his eyes averted, and Naruto felt that pang of guilt again. But he had other things to worry about right now.

"Good morning all," he said. "How are things going, Konohamaru?"

"They're going great," Konohamaru answered. "I've been teaching them some new jutsus."

"Good to hear," Naruto replied. "I called you in because I have a job for your team. We just need you to help a farmer outside the village cleaning up his barn. They already have someone cleaning out the… other stuff… so you won't have to worry about that. It should take you a couple of days, but we're not going to have you stay with him, since his house is already full. But they told us that you'll be working from the monkey hour and be let out around the Hour of the Monkey or Rooster."

The team was already groaning from having to do such menial labor, but they were relieved to hear the time.

"Then we should be on our way," said Konohamaru.

"No big missions!?" Sarada spat.

"We don't have anything you're thinking about," said Naruto. "Besides, you can put your jutsus to good use."

"That's a good way of putting it," said Konohamaru.

"Here's the farm's location," Naruto said while handing Konohamaru a paper. "I'll see you guys later tonight."

Konohamaru and his team turned to leave. But Naruto wasn't done. "Boruto," he said. The boy froze fearfully. "When you get back, I'll take you to Ichiraku's for dinner. I… shouldn't have yelled at you. It was wrong, and I'm sorry."

Boruto didn't say anything, but he walked away. That left Sarada behind to talk to him.

"Yes, Sarada?"

"My mom needs help," she said. "I think we're going to lose our house."

Naruto dropped his pen.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

So how was this?

As much as I want this to be short and sweet, I recognize that there's a lot that I want to do, and it might take me a while to finish the story. That being said, I think I'm on a good roll here. I also want to thank everyone for the reviews, except for the one asshole who told me to kill myself. I hope you're proud of yourself. And I'm glad I'm getting such a good reception!

One last thing: There won't be any cheating going on in this story. I don't do cheating, even though I absolutely hate the ending pairings.

Thanks for reading!