A Relatively Long Note From the Author:
Hello everyone, I would like to start off by apologizing for the lateness in updates in regards to both this chapter of "Yours To Hold", as well as the update for "Don't Ever Let Me Know", which—for those of you who aren't following both stories and/or myself as an author—is my only other currently "active" fanfic.
For those of you who ARE indeed subscribed to myself as an author, I am sure that you are well aware that as of this past month, I have been writing a good bit of different oneshots and/or songfics that haven't been, in any way, relevant to either of my two active stories.
There is a good reason that I have been writing these, however, the main one being that as of lately, I have been getting some (in my opinion) rather GOOD ideas for different pairings to use in different oneshot/songfic stories and I've felt the need to simply put those out there as a means of clearing them from my head!
In a sense, I guess you could say that it's had a positive impact on me updating my current stories, considering the fact that NOW, my mind is nice and clear so I can come up with some plot developments for "Yours To Hold" and "Don't Ever Let Me Know". But alas, I have been writing a lot of oneshots and songfics and thus, I've been neglecting updates for my active stories. There is just no way around admitting that and thus, I am fully aware of it. I apologize to those of you who have been waiting on some sort of an update on these two stories.
With that being said, I'd like to bring into light a few things in regards to the plot of this story. Considering the fact that "Yours To Hold" is now on it's ninth chapter, along with the fact that we are almost finished with the year 2010, if you happen to be up to date with the current Naruto manga... well, simply put, you are by now well aware of "what is taking place with that" (I worded it this way as a means of not putting in any spoilers before giving off an actual spoiler warning). And so, I digress...
The Relevance Of This Story Versus The Current Happenings Of The Naruto Manga Series:
**WARNING: THIS SECTION OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE OF YOU NOT UP TO DATE WITH THE CURRENT MANGA SERIES. IF YOU WISH TO AVOID READING ANY SPOILERS IN REGARDS TO CHAPTERS 516 UNTIL THE PRESENT (Chapter 521), SKIP THE FOLLOWING AUTHOR'S NOTE AND JUST READ THE STORY! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**
For those of you who've been following this story from the beginning, I'm sure that you are well aware that I began writing "Yours To Hold" in April of 2009. At that time, the manga was taking place in the Invasion of Pein arc, and in other words, the series wasn't even remotely CLOSE to entering the Shinobi World War arc, and thus, I was writing this story out of PURE imagination alone.
In a sense, I guess you could say that I came up with the idea for a war long before Kishimoto himself had (and if you don't believe me, you can match up the dates – the proof is all there). For this, I am rather proud of myself hehehe, and it's almost as if I had (GASP!) predicted these things to happen, or something! Actually, the coincidences are all rather strange to me, really. -.-"
Now that we have reached the end of 2010, the manga (which I am NOW actively following and well up to date with) is taking place during a real Fourth Shinobi World War, and due to the vast differences in plot (vs the manga), I must now officially dub this story as an AU (aka, Alternate Universe) fic.
Now, personally, I do not like writing TOTAL alternate universe fics, but considering the circumstances, this is now officially AU. However, the characters are still shinobi, they are still relatively IN CHARACTER, and the only difference in plot lines is the fact that this is entirely my own fiction.
I'm also sure that as of now, you've noticed the differences in the plot vs the manga, but I still would like to take the time to point them out again regardless, because there are surely going to be a lot more differences in the chapters to come. So yeah, the differences in the war and other events taking place in this story, vs the ones happening in the current manga, are as following:
1. The Plot Line...
Of course, there are differences in the plot line: the pairings are different, the details surrounding the war are different, the character shinobi rankings are different in several cases, and etc.
2. The War's Purpose...
In the manga, the war is on a basis of the Allied Shinobi Forces (aka Leaf, Sand, Cloud, and Stone) versus Madara Uchiha, however, None of these events have, or ever will, take place in my story, due to the fact that MY war is completely and utterly, different.
In THIS story, the purpose for the war originally was that the nations surrounding Konohagakure—not including The Land of Wind (i.e. Sunagakure)—had decided to use Pein's attack on the village as a weak point, giving them an excuse to attack and try to finish of Konohagakure during their time of vulnerability.
Also, Pein's attack on the village ended slightly differently prior to the events in this story (i.e. the character deaths were different, and the aftermath of his attack contrasted greatly with the actual manga). So, in other words: Danzo was never appointed as the Rukodaime Hokage, Tsunade somehow died during her comatose state, and Kakashi and the other killed villagers couldn't be revived by Pein due to his battle with Naruto leaving him too weakened in the end... However, in the end, both Naruto and Konan had ended up coming to a mutual "truce" with the hopes of Naruto someday succeeding in bringing about world peace. This is why Naruto eventually sought out Konan upon hearing news that she was recently appointed as Amegakure's first official Amekage and requested the alliance between the two villages later on in this story.
3. The Allies...
In the mangaverse, Konoha's allies are: Sunagakure, Kirigakure (although it has yet to be shown in the manga that the shinobi of Kiri are taking place in the war, they still are a part of the alliance), Kumogakure, Iwagakure; and the lone samurai nation of the Land of Iron.
In this story, however, Konohagakure only has a few allies aiding them during the war. Mentioned, are both Sunagakure and eventually, Amegakure, though as a mistake on my own part, I have left out the (assumed) alliance Konohagakure has with Kusagakure (the Village Hidden in the Grass). My bad...
4. The Enemies...
In the manga, the enemies are Madara and his growing allied forces versus the Allied Shinobi Forces, and they are all fighting for a completely different cause. In this story however, the competitors start out as Konohagakure and Sunagakure versus not only the remaining members of the Five Great Shinobi Countries (i.e. Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Iwagakure), but also, Amegakure (pre-alliance), and a few other smaller surrounding villages whom have made several smaller attacks on the Hidden Leaf Village during its state of vulnerability.
5. Some Mistakes That I Have Made...
As of recently, I've noticed a few [minor] errors in the plot of this story that I would like to have been able to fix, but in order to do so, I would have to re-write the entire story (which I actually have been considering a LOT lately).
One mistake in particular that I have made early on was not reviving the villagers after Pein's attack, but as I've already said, whenever I had started writing this story, the manga was still in the middle of the Invasion of Pein arc, and Naruto was still fighting Pein. Thus, the events that followed had yet to take place: Kakashi was still technically dead, Tsunade had just been put into a coma, and the battle wasn't even remotely close to commencing. Of course now, the manga has long since progressed from the time I had began writing this fic, but the plot has already progressed far too much for me to fix everything that I wish to.
Other mistakes were just some minor detailing, though I really don't feel like being too elaborate about them considering it was just a few simple, mistakes that were hardly noticeable (except to myself). If I could re-do this entire story, I would greatly change a lot of things in it, but for the time being, I've decided to just continue this story as best as I can and hopefully, end it soon.
**END OF SPOILERS!**
Alright, I've just said a LOT (three pages worth of Author's Notes, specifically lol!) about this story, and I've possibly wasted a lot of your time by having you read all of that (if you actually did read all of that). For this, I once again apologize, however... I DO feel that going over these details before continuing with this story was absolutely necessary as a means of clearing up any confusion I may have caused some of the more newer/recent followers of this story, and now – having accomplished that – I can FINALLY start the ninth chapter of this story. So now, without ANY further ado, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D
For the first time in what seemed like ages, there was a finally a sense of calmness and serenity sweeping itself across the Land of Fire. It had been an entire month since Shikamaru and his team had returned from their mission, and now that both Konohagakure and Sunagakure were considered mutual allies with the Hidden Rain Village, the inhabitants of the Hidden Leaf Village—both Konoha and Suna shinobi and civilians alike—could be at ease from the constant attacks upon the village.
Due to the constant attacks on the village prior to this newly found time of peace, the citizens were unable to focus too much on rebuilding the majority of destroyed homes and buildings that made up the Hidden Leaf Village, and all that was left standing up until this point was a few spared apartment buildings, the Hokage tower, the hospital, and a series of numerous makeshift shelters scattered among the battleground.
Because of the constant need for defense against the attacking nations, most of which usually ended up leaving at least one building aflame afterwords, efforts at rebuilding the village to it's former glory seemed pointless. Why rebuild homes and shops if they would only be destroyed again later? At least, that's how everyone looked at things. And so, the only buildings being constantly rebuilt during the ongoing war were limited in numbers.
Among these few structures were temporary homes and battle shelters for both the shinobi and civilians alike. For the most part, the battle shelters seemed to be destroyed more than anything during the village attacks, but luckily, Yamato's special wood element was put to good use in rebuilding them afterwords.
Aside from housing, a series of small huts were scattered among the village, and due to them being located more off to the sides, they stood a greater chance at surviving each blow to the village. Most of these smaller hut-like buildings consisted of supply buildings, each one specializing in supplying the shinobi with different necessities during the war, such as weapons, food, and first aid. In fact, the number of first aid medical units outnumbered all of the other supply units due to the constant need of treatment to the battle-injured shinobi.
In the end, Konohagakure—a village once notable for it's various shops and homes—had become a true battle site confined within the same old surrounding gates, whose doors were now constantly closed to the outside world as a means of further protecting its inhabitants. Despite the attempts at keeping enemies out, however, there was still a large number of attacks occurring within the confines of the village.
A vast number of these sneak attacks were sometimes performed from the sky, the enemy shinobi performing them often specializing in long-range fighting, as well as containing specialties in flight. These, however, weren't as frequent, though not entirely rare. It was lucky for the Hidden Leaf Village that a great majority of it's shinobi were skilled in long-range fighting, and all enemies attacking from the sky were often quickly eliminated.
Another majority of the fighting was performed through infiltration, the enemy shinobi somehow making their way past the village gates and usually, directing attacking the few buildings scattered among the wreckage as a means of weakening Konoha and Suna's defenses. A lot of time, these infiltration attacks were performed in groups, and they were the ones who had proved to be most difficult in defeating.
For the most part, the war battles forced both the Konoha and Suna nin to fight using their numbers, and this often times affected them greatly during moments of casualties. Despite the use of their outnumbering manpower, the merged villages still somehow made it out triumphant after each battle, despite sometimes just barely making it by a thread.
The alliance with Amegakure helped dwindle the number of random attacks on the village greatly during the past month, word quickly spreading of Konoha's forces strengthening among the enemy nations. The alliance hadn't resulted in something as drastic as the Hidden Rain's shinobi relocating their troops to Konoha, as the Sand Village previously did, though news of the alliance did spread among the other shinobi nations and it was made very clear among the village leaders that if needed, Amegakure's forces will not hesitate to back up Konoha and Suna in battle.
To be quite honest, the enemy villages were afraid of Amegakure's assistance, considering the fact that due to the village being closed off from the other nations for so long, their strengths were still quite unknown which could result quite drastically for them should the opportunity arise for Ame to move in and assist the Hidden Leaf village shinobi, as well as the Sunagakure shinobi.
The war wasn't over, but the constant attacks had halted almost immediately following the signed alliance treaty earlier on in the month. But the shinobi within Konoha's walls knew that despite this newly found peace, things weren't guaranteed to remain as such, and were thus always on their guard as they waited for the attacks to begin.
After the first three weeks had gone by without a single attack, the village leaders had started having numerous discussions about finally making an effort to rebuild the Hidden Leaf Village, considering the village's current on-going state of "peace" as the perfect opportunity to finally go about making a real effort at re-creating the former Leaf Village. It would certainly take a good bit of discussing before any definite plans would be made, but it remained hopeful that someday soon, the village could finally begin returning to being just that – a village, rather than a giant battleground covered in huts and makeshift homes.
As a matter of fact, it was this subject in particular that had brought forth everyone of "authority", in terms of Konohagakure's best interests, together at the Hokage Tower on this particular day, all of which were now gathered to discuss the future of Konohagakure, it's restructure, and it's rebirth as the powerful nation it once was.
So now, a total of sixteen people—both men and women of various ages alike—were all seated quietly around a large, round table located within the largest of the Hokage Towers' many conference rooms. The group of shinobi were all expectant on the arrival of the final two members of the meeting, which was technically supposed to begin twenty minutes ago, but was instead currently on hold due to the absence of the village's two joint leaders, the Rukodaime Hokage and the Godaime Kazekage. And now, the present sixteen people were left with nothing to do but wait for Naruto and Gaara to finally show up in order for the meeting to commence.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of town, a very anxious and nervous looking Gaara was currently dragging the blonde hokage behind him by the wrist. A small trail of several noodles were currently streaming out of the protesting blonde's mouth, though he did nothing to stop Gaara from dragging him throughout the streets of the town towards their destination. Although Naruto was running extremely late for the meeting, Gaara, on the other hand, was quite punctual on being on time.
Due to the fact that Gaara himself was considered one of Naruto's more relatively "close" friends, aside from the blonde's lover, a now irritated Sakura. If it wasn't for the pinkette's history of violent outbursts towards the blonde hokage, she would have been the person sent to retrieve Naruto. But keeping Naruto's safety in mind, eventually, it was Gaara who was awarded the task of, as Sakura had so colorfully worded it, "drag Naruto's sorry ass back to the tower" for the meeting.
Sakura was certainly not the loveliest of women when angered, and currently, her face was twisted in a scowl as she glared hard at the center of their meeting table, her arms tightly crossed over her chest and her eyes narrowed into tight slits as she silently ranted to herself about Naruto's punctuality, or lack thereof.
'The nerve of that damned baka!' Sakura angrily thought to herself, in regards to her her blonde lover. Instantly, a vein had become visible in the corner of her forehead as she glared hard at the table before her, her arms crossed tightly over her chest in irritation.
'I mean, I love him and all, but seriously? He calls us all down here, a week in advance, and he hasn't even shown up on time? Seriously? Where the hell is he?'
Sakura's silent brooding wasn't left unnoticed by her surrounding counterparts, and Ino took the first opportunity to chide in and jab the pinkette in the arm, a mischievous grin on her face as she silently whispered to her longtime friend and rival.
"I would have thought that you of all people would be the one to make sure that Naruto-kun was here today, Forehead," Ino whispered, her mouth hidden behind her open palm in attempts at keeping her voice as hidden from the surrounding people.
Ino's words caused the pink-haired kunoichi in question to stiffen visibly, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck now standing sharply on edge as Ino's words registered through her mind loud and clear. The blonde woman's two-cents hadn't gone unheard, however, by Shikamaru, who was currently sitting on the opposite side of Ino, and he let out a long sigh before quietly whispering to his blonde teammate.
"Ino, don't make it any worse than it already is," the young shadow-user whispered, his words causing Sakura's body to slightly lessen it's tenseness, though not entirely.
Ino immediately smirked at his words, the mischievous glint in her eyes, as well as her current fox-like grin, never leaving her face. The blonde's bright blue eyes shifted over to Shikamaru as she responded to his words, the mischief on her face not once faltering as she quietly retorted.
"Tch, don't give me that crap, Shika-kun. You and I both know that Naruto would have been on time today if someone here had forced him to be. He may be our Hokage, but we both know what kind of hold Sakura has on him," Ino whispered before chuckling softly, her words only serving to further irritate Sakura.
Sakura was desperately trying her best to cling to whatever self-control she had left as a means of not pulverizing her blonde friend. The pink-haired woman leaned forward with an irritated expression written all over her face. She immediately placed both of her palms flat against the table in front of her, her eyes dangerously shifting towards the blonde next to her. Shikamaru instantly letting out a soft groan upon realizing that a conflict was definitely about to occur between the two kunoichi.
"Well PIG, I don't know how you could expect me to do that considering you and I both spent the entire night on a hospital shift!"
Sakura's voice was still soft enough to evade the attention of most of the other shinobi surrounding the room, her tone forcibly silent as she mustered up all of her strength to NOT cause a scene between herself and her annoying best friend. She wanted to present herself as professionally as possible, her relationship with Naruto being no secret to a single person within the village. Sakura knew that the way everyone looked at it, the only reason she was on the village committee at all was due to her relationship with Naruto, though in all actuality, it was due to the fact that both she and Ino were in charge of the village's medical team.
From the glint in Sakura's eye, however, Shikamaru immediately knew that things were going to end up way too out of hand if he didn't do something now to break things up between the two temperamental kunoichi. He pressed a hand against Ino's shoulder and prevented her from leaning forward as a means of starting an argument with Sakura, and in response, the blonde-haired woman glared hard at him as she quieted down.
Sakura, who was still staring intensely at Ino, watched as Shikamaru somehow managed to defuse the blonde-haired kunoichi and thus prevent her from continuing the argument, and getting the picture, Sakura eased herself quietly back into her seat, her face now resuming it's previous scowl as a response to the near-fight between herself and Ino.
'I've just got to keep my composure,' Sakura thought quietly to herself as she forced herself to calm down as best as she could, her thoughts echoing over and over in her mind like a mantra, reminding her of what was necessary in order for her to be taken seriously by everyone else in this room.
'I know exactly what a majority of these people think of me and I have got to appear as professionally as possible, which means – no fighting with Ino, no random outbursts at that damn baka Naruto... I've got to keep my cool for my own sake. Hopefully, their opinions of my professionalism will change sometime in the future, so until then, I've just got to keep presenting myself as a professional.'
Sakura let out a long sigh, her arms remaining crossed over her chest as she slightly slouched in her seat. Slowly, her thoughts were draining her self-confidence, even though she wasn't intending to do so. She knew that she would just have to do her best to get through this meeting without too many of her temperamental outbursts, but the fact that she knew how the older participants of this meeting looked at her most of the time caused Sakura's pride in herself as a kunoichi to slowly decrease.
Doing her best to regain her confident stature, Sakura forced her back to straighten in her seat, her arms and hands dropping from their crossed position over her chest as she settled for folding her hands neatly in her lap. Sakura's sole intentions were simply to successfully give off a complete appearance of self-confidence and professionalism, despite how uncertain of herself she was actually now feeling.
Shikamaru's hand never left Ino's shoulder, his grip lingering as a silent effort of preventing the blonde-haired kunoichi from starting another confrontation, and it didn't take long for Ino to discard all intent to cause a scene with Sakura, her bright blue eyes watching the uncertainty in her pink-haired "rival's" expression.
Letting out a soft sigh in a silent understanding, Ino's hand reached over and squeezed her friend's own hand, the gesture causing the pink-haired woman to look over at her friend with a shocked expression before immediately softening her features and offering the blonde a small smile.
The two young women, though usually at each others throats about the most foolish of things, both held a silent understanding of one another, and despite their occasional differences, in the end, they always seemed to somehow pull through for one another.
Ino's actions didn't go unnoticed by Shikamaru, due to him having been watching Ino like a hawk, mentally preparing himself to stop her from starting another conflict again if need be. As he watched her take the pink-haired medic's hand, as well as the soft smiles between the two women that followed, he finally relaxed significantly and released his grip on Ino's shoulder.
Averting his attention away from Sakura and Ino, Shikamaru's eyes scanned the other people in the room, mentally taking in all of their presence's. Across from himself, Ino, and Sakura sat Hinata Hyūga, who was quietly seated next to her father, Hiashi. The young Hyūga clan heiress seemed uncomfortable as she forced her posture to remain upright and proud—something she had hoped would gain her father's approval. Hinata's eyes constantly shifted between the center of the table to her father's figure beside her, her eyes full of hope and uncertainty.
Hiashi, for the most part, held his head proudly, his eyes often closed as he conveyed an inhuman amount of patience. However, during the few seldom moments his eyes would open, he would glance towards his daughter with an expression akin to shame and disapproval, his harsh gaze causing the young woman's forced confidence to falter significantly.
Next to the two Hyūga's sat both Kiba and Tsume Inuzuka, his mother. Kiba, who was seated on the opposite side of Hinata, was currently present due to his position as one of Naruto's few hokage advisers, his ranking, though less significant from all of the others currently present, was still necessary regardless due to his role of being one of the many supporting beams taking part in Naruto's success as the village hokage.
The younger Inuzuka's eyes remained on his female teammate, and it took all of his will-power not to lash out at Hiashi for treating Hinata so poorly. He knew that it wasn't his place—both as the member of another clan, as well as her friend—for him to have any input in regards to the Hyūga clan's affairs, and the fact that his mother was currently sitting next to him was all the proof he needed to show him that their presence was also a representation of the Inuzuka clan. In fact, that was the sole reason his mother was present at this meeting, and should he make a fool of their clan... well, he didn't want to even imagine what she would do to him.
Shikamaru's eyes continued to scan the room, his mind processing every detail of the people currently present for this meeting. He mentally acknowledged the presence of Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father, who was seated directly across from Ino at the table, his appearance holding a great amount of authority and power. Shikamaru knew exactly why Inoichi was present at the meeting, and it certainly wasn't due to his position in the Yamanaka clan. No, Inoichi was also notoriously known for his status on the Konoha Interrogation Unit, and that was the true reason for his presence today.
On opposite sides of Inoichi sat both Chōza Akimichi and Ibiki Morino, both men serving completely different purposes for their presence, though of course, Shikamaru knew both reasons. Chōza was there serving as a figurehead of the Akimichi clan, and Ibiki was present due to his position as the Commanding Officer of the Konoha ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force.
Ibiki's face currently had a smirk plastered to it, and with crossed arms, his eyes also was currently glancing around the room. Like Shikamaru, Ibiki was currently making a silent assessment of the room's inhabitants and it was in that moment when Shikamaru realized one thing—despite the older man having a truly sadistic nature, the two were equally calculating as shinobi. With that thought in mind, Shikamaru visible shivered at the thought of having something in common with Ibiki Morino, and so his eyes immediately looked onward as a means of distracting himself from his newly found morbidity.
Sitting next to Ibiki was Baki, whose purpose today was solely as one of the members of Sunagakure's Advisory Committee. Alongside Baki sat Temari of the Sand, who was currently whispering something incoherent to her younger brother Kankuro. The sand siblings were rather important in ranking not only due to their relation with their youngest brother, Gaara, but also, they were both Gaara's main political advisers and supporters.
Shikamaru's eyes were just about to drift further around the room before he was pulled out of his silent calculations by a soft nudge coming from his right. Immediately turning his head to look at the source, he was met by his father, Shikaku's, smirking face as the older man leaned a bit towards his son to whisper something in his ear.
"What are ya calculating there, son?" Shikaku asked, and Shikamaru let out a sigh.
"Nothing much," the younger Nara said before continuing. "Just taking in everyone who's here right now. Where do ya think Naruto and Gaara are?" he asked causing the older man to chuckle in response.
"Beats me. I figured you would be the one to know the answer to that considering you're such good friends with the Hokage."
Shikamaru's shoulders dropped in a shrug as he leaned back into his chair, abruptly ending the brief conversation between himself and his father. Crossing his arms, he closed his eyes.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of town, Naruto could still be seen being dragged by his wrist by a now-irritated Kazekage. Naruto was following the young Kazekage in a slight jog, both young men's Kage robes fluttering wildly about them as they rushed towards the awaiting meeting at the Hokage tower.
"Matte, matte, Gaara! Take it easy, will ya? We're not THAT late for the meeting..." Naruto muttered from behind his red-haired friend, said man turning around to look at the blonde without slowing his pace.
"We're already twenty minutes late for the meeting because of your inability to ignore your appetite. I cant believe you were so reckless, Naruto. After all, you are the one who arranged this meeting last week, I would have thought you'd be one of the first people to arrive." Gaara lectured and Naruto let out a long mixture of a sigh and a whine, his feet still moving as quickly as he could in attempts to keep up with Gaara's rushed strides.
Both men were donned entirely in their Kage robes, and their free hands were firmly holding their Kage hats tightly atop their heads, not wanting them to blow away from their quick-paced movements in combination with a mild breeze blowing about the village. Naruto pouted slightly at Gaara's scolded words, the immature action immediately hidden behind the chin-length cloths of his Hokage hat, the only part of his face left visible was through a parted piece of the fabric which revealed one of his bright blue eyes, his nose, and a portion of his pouting lips.
Gaara had finally succeeded in finding Naruto after having first had to ask a number of shinobi around the village about the Hokage's whereabouts. When he finally approached the blonde hokage, he was quite irritated to find his blonde friend stuffing his face in ramen at one of the few standing food stands on the opposite end of town. From the looks of things, Naruto was currently only on his second bowl of ramen, but too aggravated to care, Gaara immediately began to drag Naruto away from Ichiraku by his wrist, leaving a small trail of noodles hanging out of Naruto's mouth.
Naruto's Kage hat had been sitting on the counter of the ramen stand, but thankfully, Naruto made it a point to never allow the garment within ten feet of himself, and instincts drove him to make the hat the first thing he grabbed in attempts at anchoring himself to the ramen stand. When he finally realized that it was Gaara who was dragging him away, he let out a grateful sigh that it wasn't his pink-haired lover, who he was positive that by now, she was beyond furious with him for his tardiness.
After Naruto gave up his protests to being so roughly dragged, the two Kage's silently made their way through the crowded streets of Konohagakure, both making sure to avoid accidentally bumping into someone during their violently quick paces. As they climbed the stairs of the tower, making their way towards the meeting location, Naruto was finally able to catch up with Gaara's speed, the red-haired Kazekage releasing Naruto's wrist as soon as they had entered the front doors of the Hokage tower.
Both young men sprinting down a small, round flight of stairs to a lower level of the Hokage tower, Naruto immediately slammed the conference room's doors wide open upon their arrival, both Gaara and himself panting heavily as they were met by sixteen irritated faces. Forcing himself to even out his breathing and stature, Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly, his usual grin plastered to his face.
"Eh-heh, sorry I'm late?" Naruto said with humor tinged in his voice, doing his best not to seem intimidated by the other inhabitants of the room despite their gazes making him inwardly nervous. Gaara walked past Naruto and returned to his seat alongside Kankuro, his eyes carefully observing Naruto the entire time. Sakura was the first to truly react to Naruto's apology, her palms slamming roughly against the table as she leaned forward.
"Naruto! Where the hell have you been?" she said, a vein once again becoming visible on her forehead. Watching his pink-haired lover's angry expression, Naruto visibly paled as he once again sheepishly scratched the back of his forehead.
"Ano... never mind that," Naruto said as he turned around to close the double-doors behind him.
As he walked towards his awaiting, empty chair, Naruto didn't immediately sit down as he slid a small pile of papers towards himself from the center of the table, straightening them immediately out of habit as he cleared his throat.
"Ahem... Well, I'm sure most of you are aware of why I have called this meeting today, and I apologize once again for my lateness."
Naruto's voice immediately went serious the moment he began to speak, his tone causing Sakura's anger to immediately fade into pride as she watched her blonde lover speak with such authority in his voice. Aside from truly being proud of everything Naruto had accomplished, Sakura also was grateful that he had finally gained everyone's respect—her own included—and now, she watched him from the sidelines as he lived out his childhood dream as their village's hokage.
It amazed her to no end how things had came about during the course of the past year, but despite all of her losses, Sakura truly felt that the village had made a great accomplishment upon making Naruto the Rukodaime Hokage. Before Sakura was given too much time to muse on how proud she was of Naruto's accomplishments, however, she was immediately torn from her musings as he started to speak again.
"It's been an entire month since there's been an attack on Konoha, and I'm sure all of you know why."
Everyone in the room visibly straightened themselves in their seats as they leaned forth to listen to Naruto speak, the mood of the room going serious as the meeting finally, after twenty whole minutes of irritated waiting, began.
"Both Gaara and myself have been quietly discussing this amongst ourselves for the past week now, and we've eventually decided that it would be in the village's best interests to take this time of peace as the perfect opportunity to begin restoring the village to it's former glory."
Naruto's bright blue eyes scanned the room quickly before resting on Gaara, who was currently staring at him from where he currently sat with a serious expression on his face. Exchanging a brief, knowing glance, Naruto closed his eyes in thought as he spoke again.
"But really, that's up to all of you to decide, because I'm not 100% sure if it would be in Konoha's safest interests. So what do you guys think?"
There was a brief moment of silence, the inhabitants of the room all taking a moment to let Naruto's proposition sink in before stating their opinions. You could hear a pin drop as everyone sorted their thoughts out, each visibly glancing at one another for some sort of clues. When Ino decided to break the silence, everyone was left in shock.
"I'm not sure if that's entirely safe, Naruto-kun. What if during the rebuilding, an attack on the village occurs?" she asked, her blue eyes staring intensely into Naruto's own blue eyes, a questioning look gracing her soft features. Naruto let out a sigh as he finally sat down, his arms crossing on the table as he took her words into consideration.
"If that were to happen, it would certainly undo any progress that would be made. But I would think that considering nothing serious has occurred during the past month, we're in a safe zone at this point, don't you think?"
Once again, the room was quiet as everyone took in Naruto's words, everyone weighing the possibilities as they evaluated some sort of safe solution to Naruto's suggestion. Of course, everyone present wanted to begin rebuilding the village as soon as possible, but they had to plan doing it carefully, because one wrong move on their behalf could potentially end up leaving things worse off than they had been prior.
Finally, Shikaku Nara was the first to speak up, first clearing his throat to gain the attention of the rooms' occupants. Everyone's eyes were immediately on him as he opened his closed eyes to speak.
"I think that it's certainly worth a shot. The worst that could happen in the instance of an attack is minimal in comparison to us doing absolutely nothing to restore the Hidden Leaf to its former glory. I believe the Hokage is right in saying that it's worth a shot."
Shikamaru's eyes were immediately on his dad's form, a skeptical brow raised at his father's words as he weighed those options over in his mind. Finally, letting out a sigh in defeat, Shikamaru parted his lips to speak.
"I am implied to agree," was all he said, and soon after, a series of nods and slight words of agreement were softly heard about the room. Naruto's arms were crossed as a large grin graced his features.
"Alright then, it's settled! We'll start the rebuilding process ASAP, dattebayo!" Naruto said cheerily, and in response, Gaara allowed a small smile to grace his features. But Gaara wasn't the only person smiling in response to Naruto's positive attitude; Sakura too allowed a small, proud grin to grace her delicate features as she stared at her lover and hokage.
"This meeting is adjourned!" Naruto said finally, enticing everyone to finally stand to leave, but not before bowing to their blonde hokage respectfully.
A/N: Well, I figured I'd get this chapter in now, just shortly after christmas. Sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy the chapter ^_^