A/N: Well, here it is. My final Trial, but not my final chapter. This also marks the beginning of my switch-around! What does that mean, you ask? Well, since I didn't want to shove in a pointless chapter or extra Trial, I'm switching the order of the perspectives. Yes, that means this chapter will be in Naruto's perspective again, while the next will be Sasuke, and the pattern continues from there. No, I w on't have double Sasuke chapters, it just doesn't fit anywhere, heh...Don't eat me 0-0
DisclaimerIdon'townNarutostuffwhateverbiteme
I hope you liked the Trials part of the Trials as much as I did, but don't think that you can just forget them once they're done!
Final Trial: Succession
Sasuke recovers way too fast, in my opinion. Luckily, I'm in the clear! Before he can open his mouth and rant at me about whatever he can think of, I shushed him with a finger and pointed to the doctors. He huffs and glares at me while I pretend to fall asleep for a couple hours. Once that's over with, and the doctors wake up, we're able to start the rest of the walk back to Konoha.
"You know, Sasuke," I squeeze his shoulder as we walk through the clear desert, "If you want to look angry, try to stop blushing."
"I'm going to kill you!" He growls low enough that he doesn't attract the doctors' attentions, "What the hell were you thinking?"
"Mmm, maybe if I lick here, I think he liked that-" Shit, Sasuke! I think...Yeah! My lip's bleeding, you bastard!
"Don't knock me out, Teme! You're the one who'll have to haul my ass across this desert!"
"I'll leave you for the vultures!"
"What are you so mad for? You weren't complaining this much when you were shoving my head down," I lick my lips, which does draw his attention, but he's obviously pissed that something so small affected him.
"Shut up!" He shakes his head and yells at me again, but I can hear the tell-tale strain in his voice.
Well, I'm starting to follow his pattern now, since it works off of mine. He's protecting himself against my teasing by being an indignant asshole! We have fun, he gets weird, I tease, he get pissed off. Knowing that, it should be pretty easy to derail him and stop him from getting any more worked up.
"Hey, I'm not going to apologize, you know," I keep my eyes on him until he makes eye contact and keeps it.
"Tch!" He tries to insult me again, but I swoop in with "The Line."
"I couldn't help myself. I want you, Sasuke," I know I have him when his eyes widen at my heated stare. Nothing works better than being straight-forward with someone as emotionally skittish as Sasuke. And since I'm possessive of him, I'll let him know it.
"You idiot," He breaks away from me, shoves his hands in his pocket and walks a few steps ahead. "Don't be so public about it, then."
I don't know why the girls always thought you were so dark and mysterious, Sasuke. You're really easy to figure out!
"Naruto-dono," Oh, now I'm dono to them? "How soon will we be arriving in Konoha?"
"Just another hour yet, why?" I look at Kouba, who's blushing fiercely, "What's wrong?"
"I...have to go to the bathroom," Well, I never expected them to have shinobi-like steel bladders!
"It's your lucky day, then. We're in a forest, if ya haven't noticed," I gesture to the woods around us, "Pick a tree, any tree, just try to avoid the ones with poison!"
She scrunches up her nose, which looks kinda cute, though Sasuke does it a lot better. I get the drift of her disgust. It's not easy for civilians to get used to the "finer" points of being a ninja.
"Hey, it's either that or be covered in piss when you walk in to take Sakura's place. I think we all know the least embarrassing choice, right?" I pat Kouba on the back and push her gently towards the trees, "Don't worry, we'll make sure old Hakushi doesn't peek!"
"Like hell I would!" Damn, fiesty old guys are always awesome!
"Suit yourself, doc! I won't try to corrupt the elderly," Sasuke catches the implication and glares at me. No, I tell him through a shake of my head, I don't want to look at that chick take a leak. I don't know what creep would want to watch someone do that.
Ah, actually, it sounds like something that the younger Sakura would've done to Sasuke. My bad!
With bathroom breaks out of the way, we're free to lead our pack into Konoha. We have to double-check the scroll to see where the hell these doctors need to go first. It orders us to take the "captives" to the elders. Poor medics...
Look on the bright side, at least they'll be able to treat the nausea they'll get after seeing those assholes!
Making it clear that they aren't captured, Sasuke and I lead a few steps ahead of them. Sure, we're still getting looks from the villagers, but they can't even start to know how much I've changed since the last time I saw them. I would tell them to suck my dick, but that's not unpleasant enough to be a punishment for their bitching. So instead, I'll just ignore them until I get to directly address their problem with us.
"Do you think that we'll fail for using diplomacy instead of force?" Hey, I deserve to be a bit nervous. I'm too fucking close to becoming Hokage for this to screw me over!
"You never know with these elders, but I'm sure your decision was right. This Trial was based on the "trust" concept, so you can easily assume that it was supposed to focus on alliances. If we were supposed to betray our allies, it would have contradicted our Trial," Sometimes, I'm really glad that Sasuke over-thinks everything.
Despite our certainty, all bets are off when we finally walk into the meeting room. We have the "lovely" Koharu, doing her imitation of a shaved cat, and then the ever-stodgy Mitokado! My two favorite people, grumpily drinking tea behind their second replacement table (Or third? I've lost track of how many times they pissed me off by now) and eyeing us up.
"Special delivery!" I make a huge gesture, uncovering and presenting the unshackled "captives.
"You've kidnapped Kouba-sensei and Hakushi-sensei?"
"Sure, if that means asking the Kazekage to switch these two for Sakura. It has a different name, something like diplomacy, or "not being a douche-nozzle," though I understand if you don't understand either of those terms," I don't know what's gotten me going on the whole sarcasm schtick, but I'm liking how red-in-the-face it's making Koharu.
"Honestly, elder-sama," Sasuke picks up with a drier version of my tone, "We hope this is our last human trafficking Trial. It's not boding well with our morals. Are you at least familiar with what those are?" Burn, baby!
"Are you petulant children finished, or do you just want to forfeit the Trial before finding out your result?" She has me by the balls there. Man, and I had a really good follow-up for Sasuke's taunt, too!
"Alright, then. Did we pass, or did you honestly want us to risk the Shinobi Alliance and my friendship with the Kazekage?"
"I don't know, Uzumaki! How do you expect to become the Hokage when you still treat your elders with such disrespect? Putting you in office now would be like putting an Academy student in charge of an ANBU squadron!" Once again, I have to feel bad for Mitokado since has to listen to this hag every damn day.
"There are differences, Koharu," I place a knee on the table and lean down close to her, "I'm ready, I'm going to do it, and I'm going be the best you've ever seen in your long-ass life! Add Sasuke's help on top of that, and you have something that's unstoppable."
"Your cockiness will get you nowhere, Uzumaki," She sticks her nose up defiantly, but my presence dwarfs hers entirely.
"Unstoppable, Koharu. That includes you," I stand up and flash a smile, "It feels a lot better when you're on my side, you know! Why don't we start over, and we can make this relationship work once I'm in office. What do you say?"
"You passed, now get out of here, and take the doctors with you!" Can't say I didn't try.
"Koharu, perhaps you're being too rough. We were well aware of his behavior before allowing him to attempt the Trials. You knew to expect this," Mitokado pats her hand, but she is hearing nothing of it.
"Out!" When she screams, the doctors jump and hide behind Sasuke and I. Like hell we were going to stay there any longer than we had to, so we run the doctors over to the hospital. Once there, we run into Shizune talking to Sakura about some patient with chronic nosebleeds.
"I'm telling you, Shizune. Give him one of the older nurses and he won't have a problem anymore," We catch the end of the conversation, but both women notice me approaching. Wearing orange and being blond always helps!
"Hey Sakura! And Shizune, what's up?" I grin at both of them, and they exchange a glance and giggle at me.
"What's so funny?" I scratch the back of my head playfully. Now that I'm around decent company, I can slip back into my usual habits.
"You seem chipper. You passed the the Trial?" Sakura smiles broadly at both of us. I don't know what it is, but there seems to be a sparkle in her eyes, and she's having a great hair day.
"You betcha! Speaking of which, let me introduce you to my friends," I pull the doctors forward and motion towards Sakura, "Kouba-sensei, Hakushi-sensei? This is my friend, Sakura. If she'll be nice, she'll go and help your patients back in Suna."
"I'll be doing what now?" Okay, volunteering her for something wasn't a great idea, but she's taken it well. In fact, she giggles a bit when she shakes Hakushi's hand.
"Sakura-chan, please?" I'm allowed to use my school boy honorifics when I beg, "I had to make a deal for my Trial, and you were my bargaining chip. So, what do you say? Can you go help Gaara out for a few days?"
"Well, sure," I pump my fist by my side quickly and start rambling about preparations for her trip and how thankful I was.
"Wait up, baka-Naruto. I'm not leaving for a couple days," She turns towards the doctors as I go slack-jawed, "Can your patients last long enough? I can make it to Suna in less than a day if I fly there."
"Fly? Since when could you do that?" I squawk, and that gets me a dirty look from Sasuke. I guess I'm not allowed to embarrass my boyfriend in public.
Sheesh, I can almost hear him in my mind saying "I'm not your boyfriend, dobe." It's pitiful that he's stubborn enough that I'm already rejecting myself! Why can't we just be dating, damn it!
"You're not even listening me!" Oops, I zone out around Sakura way too much for my own good!
"Yeah I am! But why is that so important?" I have a "Line" for Sasuke, and this is my "Line" for Sakura. It's saved me a billion times from her crushing fists!
"Are you kidding me? Last time I checked, your inauguration and your festival are pretty damn important!"
"Right, right, right! Hey, it's not official yet!" I chuckle and wipe a finger under my nose to cover my huge smile. She's being sweet, though I know I would want to stay for all the fun stuff, too.
"Yeah, but it's about to be," Sasuke's interjection snaps some gooey barrier in my mind that was stopping me from fully realizing something.
My dream...this is my dream. It's changed it's meaning and it's purpose for me almost a hundred times, but it never stopped being the most important goal I've ever had. What everybody said was impossible is happening right now. Everyone standing around me has helped me get here, and there are more that I could thank all over the world. More importantly, though, are the people who aren't on this world anymore. Jiraiya, the Third Hokage. . .Mom, Dad . . .hell, even Haku and Zabuza!
But now is not the time for inner acceptance speeches. This last Trial, there's no saying what it will be! It's the Pig Trial, for fuck's sake! What the hell could that even entail?
"Naruto, you seem pretty zoned-out today? Are you nervous about your final Trial?" Sakura lays her hand against my rapidly pounding chest, and I swallow thickly.
"No shit, Sherlock," I absent-mindedly patted her head and high-tail it out of the hospital with Sasuke on my heels. I only notice that he's saying something when he pulls me back by my hair.
"Dobe! Stop freaking out," He shoves me against the hospital gate, which sloshes my liquefied brains around my spinning head. It's the last bits of will I have that prevent me from being reduced to seizures.
"I'm trying, okay? I just can't think straight for shit," This wobbly yard is making me feel nauseous. Make it stop, make it stop...
Laying my forehead against Sasuke's helps, and focusing everything I have on the shuriken-star in his eyes makes it easier to cope with the weird effects of my panic attack.
"Naruto, Sasuke?" That voice is...Shizune's, right? She was next to Sakura earlier. . .or was that Rock Lee? Fuck if I remember. All I know is that Sasuke shouldn't have pulled away from me.
"As tough as he looks, he's prone to panic attacks," Oi! This is the only one you've ever witnessed, okay? The other time, it was about you. The other time, it was supremely worse than this little worry session!
Except now I can hear how fast my heart it beating, how shallow my breaths are, and I don't remember my chest being this tight a minute ago, and why are there rainbow lights everywhere?
"You two have a couple hours before you'll be summoned. By then, make sure he's prepared," I catch the back end of the conversation, but it sounds like they're speaking through a wall.
Hokage, what if I become it? Fail it, I'm going to fail it, what if I fail it, I've always been that failure, when did that ever stop?
When did I end up here? Did Sasuke drag me to...
My apartment?
Was this ramen in front of me a second ago?
"Your eyes are moving. Does that mean you're calm enough to hear me?" Sasuke sits next to me and places a hand underneath my chin. My eyes flick over to his.
"Aren't you supposed to be the relaxed 'go with the flow' one? Leave the worrying and the over-analyzing to the master," He runs his fingers soothingly through my hair as he feeds me my favorite food.
"Sasuke," My voice is never this hoarse. My ragged breathing took its toll, I guess.
"Just eat," He brings the noodles to my mouth again, but I gently take the chopsticks and put them back into the container.
"Did Shizune tell you what our Trial was?" I calm the fluttering in my chest before I can freak out over saying that damn word, "Trial." I hope I never have to say that word again after I get done with this.
"No. She just said that we should be prepared. They should be getting us in twenty minutes or so," That soon! No, no, stop it. That's plenty of time to cheer up.
"Naruto, don't hold back. If you need to panic some more, it's better to do it now than when we're at the Trial."
"Don't you think the future Hokage should be able to stay calm? They should be confident that they will pass no matter what, right? Does it look like I'm doing that?" I can't fake a bravado like I usually do, I can't even stop my brow from furrowing!
"I have no idea what you're looking at," Sasuke pulls me up and drags me in front of the dresser mirror. He forces me to look at my untidy hair, bruised eyes, and garish orange jumpsuit. This is the fucking Rokudaime?
"The boy who was always carefree to the point of being stupid? He's in there still, but he's been overshadowed," He stands beside me in the mirror, dwarfing me with his lively hair, glowing skin, and stunning eyes. How the hell am I even able to stand next to someone like him?
"You listen to me, Naruto. That bottom-rung loser you think you still see in this mirror? He's been taken over by the man who works so hard for everything, who wants to protect everyone, who is so impressively powerful that he's the village hero! This person you're looking at is that man, and he's going to become Hokage. I know for that for a fact, since no lesser man would be able to make an Uchiha fall in love with him."
Sasuke...
Sasuke!
"SASUKE!" He doesn't know what hit him, but he should be figuring it out now that my lips are glued to his. I don't give a flying fuck when our teeth clash, or when my chin starts dripping, since the only thing that matters is the man who just snapped me out of my funk.
If we didn't only have a few minutes to get ready, I would have him out of his clothes in a heartbeat. I wouldn't regret not "taking it slow" because I don't think anything else would come close to showing how much I love him, simple as that.
I try to resist grinding harshly against Sasuke, even though he is just as excited as I am. Getting off would probably calm me down, but I think I need some body control for this Trial, so that's a no-go. Gotta stop this before it gets too the tipping point.
"Okay, I'm ready," I push myself off of him and stand up as swiftly as I can. He doesn't register that I left right away, so I get to see Sasuke splayed out on my apartment floor, catching his breath through swollen lips. Feeling a bit awkward about leaving him high and dry, I reach down and take his hands so I can pull him to his feet.
"Fine," He dusts himself off and wipes his mouth before grabbing his katana off of my bed.
"It's time, anyway. I hope you're ready dobe, because-" Sasuke gets cut off by a loud pop, and suddenly we surrounded by white smoke. When it clears, I come face to face with the faces of all of the previous Hokages. Standing in front of us is one of the people who has their face carved into that mountain.
"Tsunade," I nod and straighten my back, then address the other two with her, "Shizune. . .TonTon," Yes, even the pig gets a greeting.
"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. You've made it to your final Trial," She stays rigid and formal, so Sasuke and I both draw ourselves up and stare straight towards her.
"Are you ready to hear about what you will be doing for this Trial?" The cold October breeze blows past us, but not one person shivers.
"Always ready," With Sasuke supporting me, I definitely can take whatever she throws at us.
"To understand the meaning behind this Trial, I will recite from the First Hokage's scroll," She doesn't pull it out, so she must have it memorized, "The Will of Fire is generational. It must be passed along to the future shinobi. It is the people who came before that will bring about the next line, but it is the new generation that will define the world. However, it is their duty to surpass the ones that came before in order to improve upon the world entrusted to them," I'm seeing where this is going.
"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. You are two fight Tsunade and I for your final Trial. Surpass us in combat, and you will be inaugurated tomorrow afternoon," Shizune narrows her eyes, "But if you fail, you may never try again."
"I'll agree to fighting you, but under one condition," I relax my shoulders a bit and take a quiet step towards her. I love Tsunade as if she were my grandmother, so this match isn't settling well in my heart.
"If this is a battle to the death, I will refuse to kill either of you. If that's a requirement, then fail me right now," Everybody but Tsunade looks shocked at how easy I would accept failure. No, she just smirks at me and shakes her head.
"No, we'll be judged by the elders," As she says it, Koharu and Mitokado walk through the door and observe us from the other side of the rooftop. Tsunade brings my attention back to her with a loud knuckle crack.
"Just don't think I'll go easy on you. You think you can become Hokage? Prove it, gaki."
"Hell yeah, I will! Don't you dare hold back!" I take a ready stance, and Sasuke follows suit by pulling out his katana and letting his Eternal Mangekyou spin fiercely.
"Don't underestimate us old people," Shizune, who bunches her sleeve up to expose her poison senbon launcher, "Especially you, Sasuke. You're trying to replace me here."
"Beeh!" Even TonTon scrapes her hooves against the ground.
"Too bad for you, Shizune," He taunts her by gesturing at her launcher with his katana, "But I doubt you'll be able to find out if your special poison will make it past my immunities today."
"At my signal, the fight may begin," Mitokado holds up a small gong in one hand and a striker in the other. He glances at one team, and then the other, then back again. Once he sees that everyone is ready, he gives the signal.
"Here we go! Kage Bunshin!" My first signature move may be cliché, but it's the best decision here. While Tsunade gets herself warmed up, she's going to want to show-off her strength. I'd rather that energy gets tossed onto my clones instead of myself. Meanwhile, Shizune is used to avoiding in battles, so she's going to end up using her poison gas pretty soon. Sasuke will take it slow so he can observe Tsunade beating the shit out of my clones.
She soon gets bored with it, so I have to think of a next step to my "plan." Next part involves using Natural Energy so I can become as wickedly strong as she is. Luckily, we're on the roof, so she isn't going to be trying to smash the ground towards me.
I summon one clone to gather the energy for Sage Mode, but it gets taken out by one of Shizune's senbon. Sasuke growls and sweeps Shizune towards the wall with Rock Lee's Leaf Hurricane kick. While she's down, he gathers up Lightning chakra to the end of his katana, and he uses it to direct a sharp bolt at her launcher. Her kimono gets scorched, but the only thing harmed was her weapon.
"Who taught you to ignore your opponent?" I snapped back to attention, narrowly avoiding a chakra-infused right hook.
"Some old geezer. Wasn't you, was it?" I wonder if she'll let me live after these Trials with all the insults I'm going to end up lobbing at her.
"I would never teach a dumb ass how to be a dumb ass!" She forces me to block and back up against the railing. Giving me no time, she uppercuts me up and over, but I flip mid-air and catch myself on the roof. Following my instinct, I bounce from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to separate the two groups. If Tsunade's away, Shizune will be left open. She's the weakest link here, so capturing her will assure us a win.
"Naruto!" Sasuke yells from a few rooftops behind. He and Shizune are still clashing, but she's managing to herd Sasuke towards us. Ultimately, Sasuke chooses to follow me. Sasuke matches our speed easily, but so does Shizune, surprisingly.
"Shizune, get your ass up here!" Tsunade falls back from me in order to grab Shizune, "Plan 40-K!"
"Right!" Once she agrees, Shizune and Tsunade stand side by side, facing us. We're forced to stop and turn around, though I can only hope that Ichiraku ramen's roof is strong enough to hold us.
Suddenly, we're surrounded by a cloud of purple smoke. Poison gas, just as I thought! I shove my hands over Sasuke's mouth and nose and I stop breathing. Something smashes into us, sending us flying. With a heavy thud and crack, we're stopped by the side of a building. The cloud dissipates, revealing Tsunade and Shizune, who smirk down at us from the top of Ichiraku.
"Nice one," I peel myself from the wood, "But would you please not wreck my village?"
"Cockiness will get you nowhere against me, Naruto!"
"No, but genjutsu certainly will," Sasuke's voice comes from behind them, so they both turn around. I can't see whatever they're seeing, but it's freaking them out.
"I'm showing them a bit of what I went through when I was on that drug. They'll be shaken after this. Are you sure you don't want to finish it off right here?" Sasuke asks without taking his spinning eyes off of the women.
"I'd rather the finishing move be less under-handed, not that your Tsukiyomi isn't a legitimate end-all!" I shout up to him, and together we lead the women to a new location so they're disoriented when the genjutsu is released.
Near the entrance to the completely restored Ninja Academy, I sit on the new swing they built.
"Wake them up and have them facing me, Sasuke. She gave a speech, I should return the favor," I smile nicely as Sasuke follows my plan. They blink a few times and look around, probably checking for signs of weirdness.
"Sorry, Sasuke really likes using Tsukiyomi," I begin swinging lightly, dragging my feet over the dirt beneath me, "It's a really useful technique, passed down through his clan. Thing is, Sasuke and Uchihas before him all had to do something horrible to get it. What I'm getting at is this; I'm all for the idea of 'surpassing the previous generation' and 'learning from their mistakes', but that leaves no room for us to decide what we'll do."
While I speak, they take a few steps towards me, only to be blocked by Sasuke's sword. "Listen," He orders them, so I continue.
" The older ones are too busy telling us what to do or not do. They don't realize that we might be able to figure out a different, better way to go about life. I've seen examples of this too often, but Sasuke's story has been the worst yet. Itachi didn't give Sasuke the option of becoming strong by himself, and many of the things Itachi in an effort to strengthen him only made Sasuke fall further. But even before then, Sasuke's family didn't give him the option of proving himself. Instead, they told him it was better to be like Itachi."
"Dobe, when did I ever say that you were allowed to use me as an example for your little speech?" He pulls his sword out from in front of Tsunade and Shizune, who seem finally ready to fight.
"You can argue with me about it later, right now," I swing high, jumping off at the peak. When I jump, Sasuke slashes at Tsunade and Shizune. Tsunade pulls Shizune and herself into the air to avoid his sword, but that makes them collide with my crowd of clones.
"U-zu-ma-ki!" With every syllable, my clones and I kick both of the women further into the air.
"Lion's Barrage!" Sasuke, flying in from above, kicks them down with both of his legs, and then grabs them before they can be flung to the ground. Without missing a beat, I switch into Kyuubi mode and grab them with my chakra hands. When they try struggling out of my grip, I squeeze them as lightly as I can.
With both of them in my grasp, they have no where to turn. Check and mate.
"I'd rather we not go any further with this, Tsunade. You could end up with cracked ribs and broken bones and probably some burns from my chakra," I let them down enough that they can put their toes down. Seeing her chances, Tsunade chuckles and looks at me.
"You think you can do it better, change the world? To be honest, I'd really like to see you try. Something tells me your generation will be the one to do it," She smiles, and I let both of them go. She pulls herself up and starts speaking with her this-was-from-the-scroll tone.
"Utatane Koharu-sama and Mitokado Homura-sama, I, Tsunade, The Godaime of Konohagakure, have battled against the Trial's Participant, Uzumaki Naruto, and have determined their prowess in battle to be far superior to my own. The Participant's Assistant, Uchiha Sasuke, has demonstrated his faithfulness, loyalty, and strength during his battle against my Assistant, Shizune. If the Elders are in agreement with this observation, it is advised that they gather an audience consisting of the entire village and the shinobi so that they may announce the inauguration and festival that will occur in twenty-four hours, the evening of October 10th."
My birthday? I'm going to be inaugurated on my birthday!
"It is true that they defeated you in battle," Koharu and Mitokado appear from the gates of the Academy, with Koharu being the one to speak up, "But they relied on their curses, the very ones that frighten and turn the villagers against them!"
"You idiots, are you blind?" Tsunade picks the elders up by their collars, "Their strength is their own, no matter what it comes from or whatever reactions they get from them! You two are the ones who wanted to see if he could pass these damn Trials! I was just going to let him in office after that year of training, but no, you had to go and bring up old customs! They passed all of your stupid Trials, now make the damn speech!"
"Put us down, Tsunade-hime," Mitokado orders, but his facial expression doesn't change from his usual frown. She must do this to them a lot.
"It's decided, then. Shizune, go get some shinobi and gather the villagers. The speech starts in an hour," Tsunade fakes a smile to them before putting the old bastards down.
"Should we meet you there, then?" Sasuke asks, putting his bloodless sword back into its holster.
"Yeah, just come have tea with me for a little bit. I have something I want to ask you two."
"This tastes horrible!" I wrinkle my nose at the sake. Oh, excuse me, the "tea" that Tsunade offered to us. I took a small sip of it, but it's strong alcoholic taste was too gross for me to keep down. I barely manage to choke it down instead of spitting it back in the cup.
"Take it like a man, Naruto. That's what you are now!" Tsunade downs her fourth cup, and it does nothing to help her splotchy cheeks.
"Are you really upset about being replaced?" I ask, reaching over the desk to try to stop her from picking the bottle up again, but she smacks my hand away.
"No! I'm celebratin'!" She hiccups and refills her cup, "And I'm not really good at asking awkward questions unless I'm drunk off my ass, heheh!"
"Awkward questions? I doubt this is a good time for those," Sasuke hisses lightly. He hasn't even taken a look at his sake since it was poured.
"It's a simple question though! Awkward, yes, but simple!" Tsunade points a finger and flicks it back and forth between us while she downs her next cup. Once finished, she pops the question, "So, are you two really together?"
"How the hell does everybody know?"
"Well, I don't know who else knows. I got my intel from that gossipy innkeeper you have. She told me that she heard some questionable sounds coming from your room!" She breaks out into peals of laughter, "Damn, Naruto! Good work! I really have no idea what he would think about it being a guy, but I'm sure Jiraiya would be fucking proud!"
"Alright, alright! Stop it!" I shout as menacingly as I can, but it doesn't stop me from blushing furiously. When she sees that, she lets out another round of giggles. We sit silently as she tires herself out and wipes her eyes.
"Geez, gaki. I'm just teasing. You know I'm happy for you!" She totters behind us and pats us on the back, "You've completed a bunch of your goals! You're going in office, you found happiness for yourselves. You two went into through hell ever since you were born, and now you're coming out on the other end with a lover by your side! Your mothers would be so happy. Kushina and Mikoto were great friends, you know."
Sasuke and I sigh and look at each other. She might be annoying as hell, but she still has a point. I smile at him, then go to pour Tsunade another drink. After all, we still have a while before the announcement.
"Let it be recorded that on the morning of October the 9th, Uzumaki Naruto and his Assistant, Uchiha Sasuke, passed the thirteenth and final Trial!"
Mitokado speaks into a microphone to give the speech. Looking up at us are all of the shinobi and villagers. I recognize all of my friends standing in the front row. Every one of them has a huge smile glued on their faces, even the stoic Neji. I see happy faces among the other shinobi and villagers, but it's much easier to spot the disapproving faces of the Dragon Knights. Before today, I would've been worried about only those who looked unhappy with those who don't want me to become Hokage. Not anymore. My friends supported me too much for me to ungratefully ignore their pride in me!
"Therefore, their inauguration and subsequent festival will be held tomorrow!"
"Mitokado, can I say something?" I whisper over to him, but Koharu glares at me. Why won't they let me speak? I try to ask again, but Koharu stops me again.
"Bow to your villagers," She orders, but Sasuke and I look at each other first. She snaps again, "Bow!" so we have no other choice.
I hear cheering from my friends and supporters, but the silence from the rest of Konoha is deafening to me.
Wow. I just wrote the last actual Trial...but, still, I'm not done yet! Hell, I haven't even made half of what happened during those Trial's relevant yet...but tell me what you thought of them, anyway!
Sorry again that I'm releasing this on Saturday instead of Wednesday. To describe how pissed off I am at certain people wouldn't begin to cover it, but it served as a distraction from my writing.
Read and Review, and thanks for reading so far!