As It Is Now

Chapter 6

I don't own Naruto or anything else really.

"You knew," Naruto accused to the man who stood quietly before him, "All along you knew and you never told me."

"I had my reasons," was Kakashi's even reply as he stood without remorse before his Hokage. Naruto narrowed his eyes and took in a deep breath…and he let it out in a long, tired sigh. Kakashi showed no visible reaction to this as Naruto sat down and turned his gaze to the window overlooking Konoha.

"I know your reasons," he started, his gaze still out the window, now lacking any sign of anger but showing sadness instead, "And I appreciate them…at the moment. I wouldn't have appreciated them in the past but you knew that; which is why you never told me." It had been a few days since they had returned from Wave and now had been the only time that Naruto had to confront Kakashi on the issue.

"It was also his wish." Naruto looked at Kakashi when he said that. Kakashi said no more and Naruto did not press him. He wondered again why Sasuke did that; he hadn't answered the last time he was asked either and that had been over a week ago.

Since getting back, he had been buried by paperwork. His clone had barely been able to keep up with everything and Kakashi had handled quite a few things as well. Why the jounin had helped out so much puzzled Naruto. Maybe it was a way to atone for keeping his knowledge secret for so long. Either way, Naruto was grateful that his decision hadn't ended in a disaster. Unless he counted the moment where he hadn't been able to slip by his advisor and had gotten caught sneaking into his office. Man, he had never been lectured like that in his life!

"I have to get this over and done with before the other jounin give me their recommendations for their teams," he changed the subject, dismissing the man who then nodded and disappeared with a puff of smoke. Naruto looked down at the files of the genin teams that were to be competing this year. There was some potential in a few of the teams, others would have to wait another year; Naruto wondered if he should let them compete or not- it depended on how their teachers presented them to him in the next couple of days.

Not to mention another batch of academy graduates were expected to become genin pretty soon as well. He would need to consult with a few jounin to see who would take them as their team. Ino had expressed interest in getting a team so he would have to see her sometime soon if his schedule permitted or else he could just send her a message.

He sighed, but then slowly smiled. This was his dream and although it wasn't as exciting as he had imagined it would be when he was a kid, he still wouldn't trade it for anything else.

With a smile still on his face, he looked out the window again and his gaze scanned the roofs of the buildings in view. The Hokage Mountain was not in view but inside his mind he could see all the faces of the previous Hokages and next to those five majestic faces was his; right alongside the portrayal of Tsunade. His hair was a bit longer now and it showed when they created the monument. Thinking about it now, he had always seen how closely he resembled the Fourth, but he had paid it no more attention to it other than the fact that it was another reason to work hard. He had come a long way and his father had been one of his major inspirations.

The other main inspiration was probably out in the field at this time. It was a bit late in the afternoon so maybe he was sitting under that tree, eating and thinking. Naruto could see him shirtless in 

his only trousers with his hair spiking up against the tree where he was leaning on it. His dark eyes would either be hooded and unreadable or closed and at peace.

Naruto's train of thought had him sighing and mentally chiding himself. Even though he had made the decision to leave Sasuke to his peaceful life, after all the raven haired man deserved it due to all that he had gone through, he could not help but think about him. Every little thought about random things would somehow lead him straight back to the man.

Sitting here now, he could only slightly begin to admit to a part of himself that maybe his feelings for his best friend were a bit more than friendly. It had never occurred to him until he had thought back to the evenings when they had laid beneath that tree when the sunlight had accentuated Sasuke's profile, how beautiful the onyx eyed man was.

He noticed that he had been looking a bit too long, had been staring too intently at the way Sasuke moved. And now, he couldn't help but wonder if Sasuke had noticed his extra attention, after all, he himself hadn't even been aware of what he had been doing until hindsight had crept up on him in the past few days.

If he saw Sasuke again, he wondered if he would tell him that. And he imagined the stoic man just looking at him and telling him that he was an idiot.

That wouldn't go well at all.

So perhaps he would just keep it to himself. No doubt he would see Sasuke again, maybe not anytime soon but he knew; when he grew restless, he would stop by that tree again to see if that raven haired man was waiting for him.

But that was for another day. Naruto sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that day and glanced down at the document in front of him. It was weekly report on the patrolling ninja and the people who went in and out of Konoha. He scanned the report quickly but made sure to not miss anything that would bring him grief later. His mind drifted back to Sasuke briefly; wondering if Sasuke had ever come back to Konoha at all in the past after he killed Orochimaru or Itachi even.

Shaking his head, he continued scanning the report and pushed Sasuke out of his thoughts. The remaining daylight left and darkness came but still Naruto went through the rest of the more urgent reports. He didn't know what time it was when the door to his office opened and a head of long pink hair poked in.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, "What are you still doing here?" She opened the door all the way and stepped into the office. Naruto gave her a sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head, "Well, you know, I have to get all this done or else I'll never go outside again. And the chuunin exam is coming up; there are a lot of potential teams that I have to review. Then there's all the reports about treaties and-"

"Naruto. You need to get out of here and go home and rest. What will you have us do when you collapse from lack of sleep and food?" Sakura pointed out. When Naruto just shrugged and opened his mouth to try to explain some more, she marched over to him and grabbed his hand and yanked him out of his chair.

"Wha-" The look she gave him made him shut his mouth immediately, Sakura had always been scary when she was mad or being stubborn about something. She pulled him to the door and out of the office and towards the stairs. All the while, Naruto had forgotten the look she had given him and was protesting loudly. Two ANBU appeared at the bottom of the stairs and looked at Naruto questioningly.

"Eh? Oh, there's no problem here. I was just making sure that the Hokage went home and got some sleep." Sakura explained in an extra sweet voice accompanied by scary eyes. When they looked at the now silent Naruto for confirmation, he quickly nodded and agreed that Sakura was merely helping him to the door.

"Good night!" he told them cheerfully before Sakura pulled him away. Towards the main doors, she hissed in his ear that it was almost dawn.



"Oh, well, in that case I'll just-eep!!" Sakura switched her hold from his hand to his collar and said, "You'll just go right to bed. Wasn't that what you were going to say?"

"Y-Yeah, that's right, I'm going to bed!" he gave in and Sakura finally let him go. He sighed and looked up at the moon shining in the dark sky. Sakura followed his gaze and said, "It's beautiful."

Naruto nodded, he agreed full-heartedly. He then turned to her and said good night as he started walking towards his apartment. Sakura followed him home to make sure he didn't take any detours along the way.

As the two disappeared down the road, Naruto looked away from the moon and headed to the top of the Hokage Monument. He hated to trick Sakura like that but he couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep recently and had actually been taking naps in the office, much like how Tsunade use to do.

Standing on top of the mountain, he looked out over the village; his home. And yet the pale moon illuminated him and the village, reminding him of another pale figure who constantly haunted his thoughts and now his dreams.