Toguro Sakura

By Moonraker One

A/N: In order to end reader anxiety, I've decided to cut this chapter into two parts so that I can get this up sooner. Sorry for the delay, I've just had a lot of stuff going on in my life.

CHAPTER NINE – Konoha's new lord Hokage (part one)

The hallways of Arashigakure's main building were abnormally cold this morning. None were colder than a particular expanse of hallway stretching between the main area where the Kage and several of her subordinates trained in a gymnasium-like open room, and her main office. Sakura brushed part of her long pink hair out of her face and sighed; even to this day she could not forget about the boy who'd tried to save her. Naruto had been the only one, out of every person she knew, who stood up for her. Maybe it was because he had the same problem as her, maybe it was the fact that as a demon he knew what it meant to be hated for what was in your blood. In any case, she passed a room and one of her subordinates approached her immediately.

"Lady Kage!" he shouted, attracting her attention from behind.

She turned and shook the sleepiness from her eyes by moving her head back and forth quickly. "What is it, Kouta?" she inquired, looking straight at her jounin servant.

He cleared his throat. "The training program has been effectively kicked into high gear, with most of our chuunin getting ready for full combat training. I doubt Konoha has anything that can touch us once we're ready!"

Oh, I know at least ONE thing Konoha has that can touch us,she thought. He might not be able to touch ME, but certainly some of our forces will fall to him. She knew Naruto had to have come into his demonic power by now. "Good job, Kouta," she uttered. "Make sure they get adequate training. We have a war to prepare for."

"Yes ma'am!" He quickly left to return to training.


An invisible wave of eagerness flooded the room that was decorated with images of Hokages past. All the previous rulers of Konoha were painted onto sections of the walls, and no less than thirty jounin—the village's finest—sat waiting for the word from Lady Hokage about what exactly would happen to decide her successor.

A hush went over the room before she spoke. She moved her head from right to left, examining the faces in her presence. Some of them, she'd known her whole life, while others she knew only a brief while. One of them would replace her as the leader of one of the mightiest villages on the continent. "My friends," she began, "Konohagakure's finest jounin, you have been called here to participate in a small test. This test will determine which of you will replace me. Are there any questions regarding why you're here?" She waited. A half a minute passed, and someone in the back coughed, but no one spoke. "Okay then. This test will require three parts. One of them will be a test of political knowledge; a good leader must be able to interact with other Kages. Any questions about the first test?" Again, she waited, with no one speaking out. "Next, you will be tested on your overall strategizing capability; can you lead a group of chuunin and genin into combat with the minimum possible amount of casualties? Can you defeat your enemies if they outnumber or overpower you? That is what is tested with the second test. Finally, in the third part, we will test your overall strength in a series of one-on-one fights. Does anybody have any questions? Because you cannot ask them later." Not a voice spoke out. "Then move on to the various rooms to which you have been assigned, so that you may take the various sections of this test. The final decision on who will lead the village will be decided by myself, upon reviewing the data for each candidate." With a rap of her fist on her desk, and a nod, the crowd scattered like flies.

Naruto filed into one of the dozens of private rooms which had been sectioned off for each individual person to be alone with only the proctors of the test watching on from inside. He'd been placed into a room with a desk and two proctors—Iruka and Ibiki—listening to his answers and recording them. "Uzumaki Naruto," the scarred Ibiki began, "you will take the part one of the test with myself providing questions and Iruka recording your answers. This room is sound-proof and has been scanned for spy devices of any sort as well as being protected from illusion. Do you understand before we go on?" Predictably, the blonde shinobi nodded. "Okay, then. Let us begin this test." He unfolded one sheet of paper and presented it before Naruto. "This is your first Kage to interact with; on the sheet is what your village knows about him. The subject at hand is war; he wants this section of territory," he circled with his finger a large portion of Konohagakure's territory outside the main village, "or else he will invade with a force of seventy-thousand. What would you do, Naruto?"

Naruto thought it over a few minutes. The territory that had been indicated was well-known for having an absolutely enormous supply of natural resources, and to simply give it up would be lunacy. It would severely hinder the economy of the Hidden in the Leaf village if surrendered, and might actually cause a recession. On the other hand, the kage indicated was the leader of an exceptionally powerful village of shinobi, and an invading force of seventy thousand would do a huge amount of damage to the village. So, he could not adequately think of a good solution to Ibiki's question.

"You must decide now," Iruka reminded. "Your deliberation time has ended."

Naruto shook his head. "Give it to him," he replied. "Human lives are more important than materials."

Iruka wrote the answer down on the paper, and motioned for Ibiki to provide the second question.

"The second subject is trade," he continued, taking up the first sheet and placing down a second. "This is the Kage of the Village Hidden in the Mist. He is known for being ruthless about his trade routes. Any who sign treaties with him tend to lose lives to 'accidents' along the trade routes. You are to come up with an good, effective way of preventing casualties along these routes."

If he could do so, he was smiling inside; he knew something regarding the Kage of Hidden Mist village that only a few knew; the Mizukage hated war. He absolutely did not want to risk lives of his men. So, Naruto knew a way that would effectively prevent war altogether. "Send no less than three upper-level jounin for each civilian trader going along the trade routes; Konoha has more than enough jounin for this, and, Mizukage would not dare attack and risk war." This was one of the few questions that had a correct answer; a vast majority of them were up to interpretation.

Iruka cleared his throat and looked up to the ceiling for a few moments, silently hoping to whatever God reigned from heaven that his former student would do well, as he held Naruto in higher regard than almost any of his other former pupils. Even so, he knew he had to be impartial, and wrote the answer down carefully and with good judgment. With a nod of his head, his fellow proctor glanced at the paper in front of him, and presented his young test taker with a new set of information. "The third subject regards treaty agreements. Here is your information regarding the Kage at hand." Naruto quickly glanced over the sheet placed in front of him, and gathered the necessary data from the sheet to make an informed decision. "A brutal war has just been fought between Konoha and this village. Many lives have been lost on both sides; as such, a treaty is desperately sought. What do you do?"

Naruto thought for a second. "Did we approach them for a treaty or did they approach us for one?"

Ibiki looked left and right a moment; he'd not been prepared for a question like that. "I...um...Let us consider for a moment that they approached us first. What is the course of action?"

Naruto did, in response, what he always had done best: wing it. "If they approached us first," he explained, "that means that we can be somewhat liberal with them as they would not have approached us first if they had enough troops to continue fighting. This is, of course, the course of action assuming that the Kage is of able body and mind. For it is somewhat non-beneficial to attempt at a treaty as the attacking party to seek a treaty before having lost a decent amount of forces."

The scarred proctor nodded, edging his test taker to continue; he was not expecting such a detailed answer from such a simple-minded individual. "Yes, and...?"

"And..." Naruto continued, adding effect with his voice. "We must try to make the treaty talks go as quickly as possible because with speed an enemy can be forced—in a way—to bow to our wishes without knowing it if they are given the impression that the time for talks is limited."

Iruka cleared his throat; he was impressed. "Well," he beat his fellow test proctor to the punch with his interruption. "What if we approached them first?"

"In that case, we would have to be as conservative as possible while still ensuring to avoid being pressured into making a bad decision."

Both proctors shared a glance right before Iruka recorded his former student's final response. "That will be all for part one of the test, Naruto. You may go now, and wait in the main hall for part two to begin shortly."

Naruto let a sigh as he waited in the hall, leaning against the wall to relieve pressure on his back. Thank God that's over with, he thought to himself. Seldom had he taken such an easy part one of any sort of test, and he hoped that the other two sections would be as simple and true to what he already knew. However, he also knew that there was a good possibility that he would be let down in the expectation that he already had all the necessary knowledge to coast through the later two parts of the exam, due to his past history with taking tests. Nevertheless, he pushed his doubts aside and tried his best to picture what was in his way next. If he knew Lady Hokage well enough, she would have him tested on three separate battle scenarios: firstly, he would be presented with a scene where the battle was nearly lost, so that he could demonstrate his ability to make a comeback from virtually nothing; second of all, his ability to properly conclude a battle when a near victory is in sight. Finally, he knew, he would be tested on when to know what is the correct situation to run from a battle and regroup, as such was a needed bit of data on any battlefield.

Not far from his position, he caught sight of Neji; the eternally jealous cousin of his wife Hinata. Although he referred to her as his sister, because of his vow to protect her from those who would wish her harm, he was still her cousin and thus, Hyuuga Neji was the permanent enemy of her husband, who represented in his mind all that was evil. You will not defeat me, Uzumaki Naruto, Neji thought to himself as he headed for the break room to grab a snack. Thinking of his wife's jealous cousin, he took his liquor flask from his pocket and took a long, refreshing drink, emptying half the contents.

I never did understand his problem, Naruto thought to himself, never fully understanding the reasons behind Neji's eternal hatred of him, even when the answers were in front of him. While he was waiting, he caught sight of Uchiha Sasuke, his eternal rival and best friend, who had just exited the room he was taking the test in. From the look on his face, and the positive energy about his aura, the blonde shinobi estimated that the test had gone well for him. He always knew that the only serious challenge that he would ever get from Konoha would come from Sasuke, and how the history between them had been, was always a very intrguing story. At first, they had been bitter enemies, what with Sasuke's eternal lust for nothing except power, and Naruto's desire to prove everyone wrong, they clashed on multiple occasions. Up until about five months after the chuunin exams, the lone Uchiha always had outclassed Naruto in every aspect of ninjutsu and genjutsu, with taijutsu being the only thing the would-be Hokage was equal to his rival in. However, with getting his training from an unknown source, the power gained from the training was absolutely startling. No type of training taught by men warranted the power as well as skill increase that the blonde shinobi displayed after a short time; was he getting his training secretly from Kyuubi? All Sasuke knew was if the ANBU caught Naruto learning from the fox demon, they'd have him executed.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" A loud voice called out from the fourth door down the hall. "You are to take part two now!" The brightly lit hallways of the Hokage's building seemed to be difficult to endure for Naruto, for the fox demon's unbelievably heightened senses made it especially bright; Naruto saw, heard and smelled everything with fifty times the acuteness of any other normal person. He pushed it aside and entered the room, and saw in front of him the predictable full map of the countryside surrounding Konoha (which took up the full expanse of a table large enough for two people to tango upon and not run out of room), and the figures that represented shinobi for both sides.

"This," Anko explained, as proctor of part two, "is part two of the test. Your instructions are as follows: you are to come up with the best way of winning the battle in front of you. Each toy soldier represents fifty shinobi. The shortest route to winning the battle is what you are to aim for, with the fewest number of casualties. Kakashi here will provide your needed materials to come up with the answer, and I will return in about thirty minutes to collect your final answer and take it to Lady Hokage. Cheating results in disqualification; any questions?" Naruto shook his head. "Good; then I shall return later." She left the examination room to grab a quick bite to eat in the break room, because she hadn't had a single meal thus far and wanted to make sure she had enough in her system to go on for the rest of the test. Christ, she thought to herself as she walked down the expanse of the hallway. So many damn applicants, and most of them'll be gone by the third exam. Spare me this never-ending trial.

Plopping down on the couch in the waiting room, she reached in her bag and pulled out her usual lunch of a couple rolls covered in sweet bean paste and the small thermos of chamomile tea. Each of the rolls went down with a few bites each, and got followed up by a sip of tea. She recalled being present at the jounin examinations, and noticed that a great deal more chuunin made it to jounin during Naruto's testing than had ever been before or since. She also knew that very few shinobi had displayed the level of betterment of self than the blonde ninja in question; somehow, in a few years' time after the exam, he managed to become one of the five top-ranked jounin in the entire village. She wished she knew his secret. She considered the Kyuubi, but shook it off; why would he train under the creature that destroyed his father? Such questions were meant for later; she put down her thermos after finishing her lunch and fell asleep on the couch.