The Hokage and the Charming Knight
by Masked Lover

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I just write bad fanfics.

-

-

-

-

-

The road was long.

The hills and valleys and forests and deserts and oceans—came one after the other. The path that was winding became one line.

His journey was taking an uncertain amount of time, yet he pressed on, forgetting himself, the endless days without the Princess as a beacon of hope was driving him into despair.

It was if the sun refused to rise and the he was travelling in perpetual darkness.

Without a sun to count the days on, time became endless.

The knight soon forgot that he came from the castle, he forgot where he was going. Soon he found himself naked and adrift on the sea, clinging to the wreckage of his boat.

-

-

---

Well then I'd say, I'll make a song for you

---

-

-

"You have something in your hair," Shikamaru noted three hours late. (But three hours well spent.)

Honestly, if Naruto didn't even notice something like toothpaste in his hair for more than three hours, Shikamaru pondered how the man even got instated as Hokage in the first place.

Naruto had almost disappeared into the ocean, his obsession with swimming in the "deep end" was driving Shikamaru off the deep end.

Naruto pulled up his long braid and pulled the seaweed from it. He met eyes with Shikamaru's angry gaze and continued the search the depth of his hair.

"A paper clip!" He clipped the paper clip back into his hair and let the braid fall over his shoulder and looked at Shikamaru as if the shadow user had bad eyesight. "Nope, didn't see any."

It was like charades.

Shikamaru pointed to the top of Naruto's blonde hair and Naruto of course, being Naruto, misunderstood and made a searching gesture with his hand over his eyes, looking behind him to a crowd of young people.

"HI Naruto!" Shouted a group of teens.

He waved to his friends on the beach, "HELLO!"

He looked back at Shikamaru, "What?"

"Right side, Naruto. In your hair." Shikamaru pointed to the right side of his head and Naruto moved his hand to the sticky mess, pulling his fingers through the strands with a grossed out face. "Give me those awful sunglasses before you wash them out and lose them."

"Shikamaru, I remember not putting toothpaste in my hair this morning. Do you remember when this happened?"

It was when Naruto had kissed him.

Shikamaru squeezed the tube of toothpaste and Naruto had put his tongue in. "Shikamaru, are you cold? You just shivered."

'How could anyone shiver on such a happy sunny day?' Shikamaru thought, absent-mindedly. 'He really is thick.'

Naruto sank his head into the sea water and scrubbed his hair clean, he'd rather be looking at Shikamaru rather than the colourful fish that were swimming around his feet. The toothpaste was probably not so good for these little guys and he was feeling a bit bad about destroying the environment just a bit more. He took a look at Shikamaru's swimming trunks a bit longer when he saw something move around Shikamaru's feet, thinking it was just a flying piece of garbage before he ignored it.

He pulled his head out of the water dramatically to return with a joke when his eyes focused he finally noticed the frail jellyfish twittering around his affection's feet.

"WATCH OUT!"

The water around Shikamaru's feet exploded like a geyser going off.

The beach girls only saw the huge pillar of water rise into the air and giggled at Naruto's antics as usual, using their small hands to cover their faces from the droplets of sea water.

When the pillar collapse, they noticed the figure walking in their direction.

Pale faces turned red and away, not from a sunburn, but from the sight of two Konoha ninjas rising from the water in their direction.

"GOOD LUCK!" Came a sudden shout!

"Good luck!" The girls cheered, there was a beach full of cat calls and whistling enough to make Nara Shikamaru regret his life up to this moment.

Naruto held Shikamaru close to his body, arms cradling the man, brides-style.

"What are you you doing, Naruto!" Shikamaru hissed. If any of the girls didn't put two and two together already.

"But there was a jelly fish!" Naruto sputtered, honestly, it was not enough to make him go straight, but Shikamaru was acting like a PMS-ing, "Sasuke-searching" Sakura.

Shikamaru made sure he punched Naruto in the head hard enough to sting.

"In the future..." Shikamaru shook, "I'D RATHER BE STUNG BY A JELLYFISH!"

-

O The Marketplace of the Hidden Village Konoha O

The sky shuddered and threatened rain.

Almost everyone held an umbrella under their arm, turning to the sky, as if would start to weep but it still held a strangely hopeful, blue hue.

Sasuke walked the streets of Konoha with weight in his stride, his steps were heavy and spoke volumes. His smile was wide and his head was high. The very houses of Konoha seemed to be made of paper in his presence, fragile and faded beside the darkening man. It was as if the hidden village had paled in nervousness, villagers passing through without their regular and jovial chorus. When she caught his eye, Sasuke cut through the crowds, like a blade through taunt fabric.

Konoha was no match for Sasuke, he would always be faster, stronger, and most of all, more selfish and willing to sacrifice.

Without Naruto to oppose him, there was nothing to keep the power mad avenger from abusing his returned title of Uchiha heir. There wasn't even a smudge of shame or covertness in Sasuke's stance when the person he was looking for approached him.

"What are you doing, Uchiha?" The voice was stern and unwavering.

She had not one weapon, but she was a powerful opponent.

Unfortunately for her, not one he needed to worry about at all.

"Sakura," Sasuke smiled a bit, how amusing irony was.

She once stalked him across Konoha, and now he had to find her hiding from him to see if she would dare speak the same words she wrote to him with such shamelessness.

"It's not like you to be so mean, I got your letter. What would Seiji say?"

At that moment Sakura regained her lost voice, "you're a monster!"

"Seiji's needs to learn the Uchiha ways if he wants to become the Hokage he claims to want to be."

"When—" Sakura struggled, "—Naruto finds out what you're doing, you'll—you'll regret it."

Sasuke folded his arms, as if waiting for a stuttering, old rambler to finish his story out of pity.

Sakura shouted then and he tried really hard to stifle his laugh. "HE'LL MAKE YOU REGRET IT!"

"Regret? I bet you wanted to say suffer?" Sasuke body began to rock with laughter, he had to hold his body to prevent himself from shaking out of control. Beads of tears began to produce from the corner of his eyes. There was little to no regret in the body and expression of Sasuke Uchiha. If anything, he seemed more himself and less restrained.

His arms loose and kinetic. His eyes more light and less shadowy.

The relief from Naruto's absence was clear. It sickened Sakura that Sasuke would actually be relieved that his golden friend was no longer by his side. Someone who cared for and supported, regardless of Sasuke's cruelty. As the two men aged it seemed that Sasuke had only grown to polarize and divide from Naruto, like oil and water.

"You're going to threaten me with that? I was expecting a fight! More competition! I guess Iruka seems to be the only one brave—no, stupid enough to follow his word." Sasuke regained his regal posture, one that Sakura once adored was wrenching the liquid from her stomach. "Apparently that's all that everyone seems to threaten me with these days."

Sasuke brushed back his hair, "there isn't one thing I have done that I have regretted."

"Isn't Naruto your friend?" Sakura asked with the last remains of empathy for her once most respected person drained.

"Yes, Naruto is my best friend." Sasuke responded jovially. "He's like second father to my son and he takes care of my wife without taking advantage or her or the Uchiha name... He's like my brother!" There was more bite in those words than she had ever heard from Sasuke in all the years she had known him, more than jealousy. There was something more to Sasuke than hatred. "And, if he's my best friend he'll be happy for me and support me as he always has."

"YOU SPOILED BRAT!" Sakura shouted, there was nothing more to say. Nothing would reach Sasuke.

Naruto wasn't here. Naruto wasn't here to fix Sasuke...

"You don't understand, Sakura." Sasuke spoke in utter seriousness. "Naruto... He cares too much..."

Sasuke left his once comrade, without looking back.

He had nothing to hold him back.

-

-

TBC

-

-

Author's Note:

OH MAN! HOW LATE WAS THIS!

APOLOGIZES TO YOU ALL!

I hope this can be concluded soon and somehow. I greatly apologize for it's lateness. So shout outs to: kissama, Bezeerc, Shikamaru-Naruto13, Shinigami, Ayumi666, darkneko666, azurefirewulf, Myaka Uchiha, fuu09, goldchild...

Sorry, it wasn't so obvious and less cannon. So props to Haru for actually getting it. And, yes we can be friends.

PLEASE HARASS ME TO UPDATE or just to check up on story progress! I have a message button on my userpage, also feel free to harass me through reviews. Harassment is okay... Flaming, within reason.

R&R Lovelies. You know you wanna.